The department unanimously resolved to oppose the move and decided to submit representations to the DU Vice-Chancellor, the Dean of Academics and the Dean of Admissions “requesting that the existing B.A. (Vocational Studies) programmes be continued”.

The developments follow an earlier decision by the College Staff Council and Governing Body.

According to the Governing Body minutes dated February 7, the college resolved to discontinue the B.A. (Vocational Studies) in Modern Office Management (MOM) that had 111 sanctioned seats. Those seats were to be redistributed by introducing one additional section of B.Com. (Honours) with 60 seats and increasing seats in B.A. (Honours) English, History and Economics. According to DU’s official curriculum document, “The course aims to prepare the Executive Secretary with proper knowledge of different types of communication and correspondence, presentation skill along with effective reports.”

The row has its origins in a university-wide exercise launched earlier this year. In the wake of persistent seat vacancies since UG admissions were centralised through the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) in 2022, DU constituted a committee to examine whether low-demand B.A. programme combinations, particularly in off-campus colleges, could be realigned to improve seat utilisation.

The committee recommended that colleges reassess discipline combinations where student preferences remained low and merge less popular subjects with more sought-after ones. At DU, previous years’ trends show that Commerce continues to dominate as the most opted-for stream, with B.Com and B.Com (Hons.) consistently emerging as the most preferred undergraduate programmes year after year, drawing lakhs of preference entries during the Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS) choice-filling. Close behind are  BA (Hons.) English, along with BA (Hons.) History, Political Science, Economics, and Psychology, which remain the most sought-after arts programmes. B.A. (Hons.) Economics stands out further for offering one of the highest number of confirmed seats across DU colleges.

The faculty of CVS, in the meeting held on June 26, recorded that the existing vocational programmes are “in consonance with the spirit and objectives of the National Education Policy (NEP), as they are interdisciplinary, skill-oriented, and enhance the employability of students”, and warned that the proposed restructuring could reduce the department’s teaching workload, “resulting in the loss of approximately 8-10 faculty positions”

Yet, in a representation submitted to Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh on June 29, faculty members allege that the exercise has since expanded far beyond what either the college’s statutory bodies or the university had approved

They contend that proposals are now being pursued to discontinue six vocational programmes and introduce entirely new B.A. programmes — changes they describe as “completely illegal” as they have not received the approvals required from the university’s statutory authorities and further said: “The employment opportunity in BA (Vocational Studies) Programmes are far better than BA Programme.”

However in April, the DU Executive Council, recorded that overall, the colleges will not change the sanctioned total intake capacity of a programme. “A College may, however, offer additional seats in an existing Programme, provided there are adequate faculty members and infrastructural facilities to meet the additional requirements…No new programme will be added and similarly, no existing programme will be discontinued,” it stated.

Speaking to The Indian Express, DU Director of Admissions, Haneet Gandhi, said the changes were made after assessing students’ demand. “Certain courses have been replaced with other programmes, keeping in mind how many students have been opting for them. The courses that have seen less interest have been replaced, and programme combinations have also been rejigged accordingly. All the replacements have been made keeping in mind the qualifications of the existing faculty members who will be able to teach the new programmes as well. None of these programmes are completely new in DU colleges and bear a new curriculum, these are only new combinations which already have a curriculum in place and are being taught in other DU colleges…the same will be followed by the faculty to teach in classrooms” she said.