Delhi University’s journalism school cashcow project hits a dead-end

On November 19, 2016, while addressing the audience of the 93rd convocation ceremony of the University, Professor Yogesh Tyagi said “Work is going on in full swing to establish Delhi School of Journalism. Hopefully, by the end of his month, or by the next month the entire blueprint of the program would be ready and would be put out on public domain where we would ask for suggestions from the public.” While the declaration was met with huge applause even among the fraternity who believed that nothing new was happening under the reign of new vice chancellor, even after eight months of the declaration Delhi School of Journalism has been under the clouds of uncertainty.

The school which is going to be started under the faculty of social sciences has run into several uncertainties before its formal beginning.

Under severe stress due to reduction of funds, the university has planned to make this course self-financed. “The course fees is expected to be somewhere within 30-35 thousand per semester”, said professor Maharaja Pandit, the chairman of the standing committee on admissions when he was asked about the same in a press conference before the admissions. With the fees running up to nearly 70 thousand per year which is way beyond the amount charged by the University for any other course, it is doubtful if students coming from economically weaker backgrounds can afford this.

The admissions process for the course has also been somewhat camouflaged. While officials have announced that admissions would be based on merit this year and entrance exam results from the next year onwards, they haven’t divulged any details about the criteria, eligibility and other requirements for the program.

The course claims to offer 60 seats and is deemed to be an integrated five year Masters Course with an exit option at the end of three years. “The program’s three years exit option is another matter of contention. The university has not yet declared what would be the degree that the students would receive at the end of three years. Whether would be a B.A prog or Honours degree, no one knows”, says Nandita Narain, the president of Delhi University Teacher’s Association (DUTA).

The program is supposed to start at faculty of Arts, North Campus. With the faculty which currently houses more than 30 departments of the university already facing problems of space crunch, how would it manage another infrastructure intensive course like journalism is another concern for some teachers.

The course is likely to hire ad-hoc teachers and professional journalists on part-time basis as faculty members for the course. “While the University has failed to fill thousands of adhoc positions in other courses and colleges, this move of hiring more adhoc teachers for new courses rather than permanent faculty members would hamper the course” added Narain.

The need of another journalism program, while Delhi University has been running BA Hons Journalism courses across several colleges over years is also questioned. “While these courses suffer from lack of faculty members and other infrastructural problems starting another Journalism school is not convincing”, said a recent press release by DUTA.

While speaking in the same convocation address, the vice chancellor had noted four major reasons why Delhi University was one of the prominent universities of the world. One among them was he said, “the university has been providing quality and affordable education to students since nearly a century”. Now with self-financed courses, recruitment of temporary faculty, his first major dream project seems to contradict the very reason for which the university was known worldwide, the inclusion of all sections.

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