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Delhi University is set to allow undergraduate and postgraduate students to earn academic credits through online platforms like SWAYAM starting from the 2025-26 academic session, a move that has triggered sharp backlash from faculty.
An agenda in this regard will be presented in the academic council meeting on Saturday. According to the supplementary agenda, "In the case of UG programmes, students be provided flexibility to earn up to 5 per cent of the total credits through SWAYAM and MOOCs Platform... not exceeding 8 credits in the entire duration of the Four Year Undergraduate Programme." For PG students, the limit is "a maximum of 4 credits" over the full course duration. The credits can be earned across a wide range of categories -- "DSC, GE, SEC, VAC, AEC" -- as per the agenda. While the proposal cites UGC's 2021 regulations (which allow institutions to offer up to 40% of a programme online per semester), teachers' bodies say this is the beginning of a deeper structural shift that could sideline faculty entirely. The Academic for Action and Development Teachers' Association (AADTA) has called the move a "backstab" and a "blueprint for teacherless universities." "This is not digitalisation. This is dehumanisation," AADTA said. "Courses taught in classrooms for decades will now be shifted online. Teachers will be pushed out--silenced by screens, replaced by portals." AADTA also criticised the administration for ignoring recruitment on EWS-reserved faculty posts and for instructing colleges not to appoint guest lecturers. "No workload = No teachers," AADTA said. "This is not policy. It is digital displacement." The association has demanded an immediate freeze on SWAYAM/MOOCs-based credit transfers, urgent recruitment to vacant posts, and a clear stand that online education remains supplementary, not primary. (ANI)
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