DU's proposed school of journalism not to be self-finance'

The Delhi School of Journalism, conceived by the Delhi University (DU), has inched closer to becoming a reality after the Academic Council resolved one of the thorniest issues - whether it would be self-financed - in its way by deciding against this.

During the meeting on June 22, which continued till 7.30 a.m. the next day, the AC decided that the institute will not be a 'self-financing' one, revoking the relevant clause in the schools's preamble, to ensure that the students will not be burdened by high fees, which the institute may have required to fund its activities.

"The council decided that the school will not work under a self-financing model. We have also agreed to send the proposal of the school to UGC (University Grants Commission) to convince it to fund its operations. We opposed self-financing model because it would have ultimately led to privatisation," Samrendra Kumar, Assistant Professor at Shyam Lal College and a Academic Council member, told IANS.

"The clause of self-financing from the preamble of the institute has been removed. We have been against the this kind of structure from the beginning. The Vice Chancellor has also agreed to write to UGC to get it proper status as fully-funded institute," he said.

The AC will appoint a separate a committee which will prepare the fees structure of the institute.

The journalism course, it was decided earlier, will be a five-year integrated programme. At the completion of the programme, the candidate will receive a Masters degree. There is a provision however which allows a candidate to pull out of the course after three years and be conferred with a Bachelors degree.

A proposal for a department of journalism was also made at the AC to coordinate the academic work of all journalism courses being run in the university. The location of the building of the institute is not yet formally known, however, Samrendra Kumar said that council is certain of the availability of land and hinted that it may be in Keshav Puram of north Delhi.

The proposal, as it stands, will be sent to Executive Council (EC) for approval after which, the remaining details like commencement of the course, location of institute, etc, will be clear.

The EC meeting, which was scheduled to be held on June 28, has been postponed for now till further notice.

The idea of the journalism school was first proposed by the current Vice Chancellor of the Delhi University Yogesh Tyagi during a meeting last year.

The school will teach both Hindi and English journalism.

--IANS

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