THE central executive committee (CEC) of the Students Federation of India (SFI) has congratulated the students, teachers and non-teaching employees of the Delhi University (DU) for their victory in the struggle against the four years undergraduate programme (FYUP), a struggle which had been going on for the last two years. It is shameful that even at this juncture the vice chancellor, Dinesh Singh, is playing his resignation drama, putting the future of thousands of students at stake. To the SFI the recent developments bring a halt to the ongoing process of neo-liberal onslaught on higher education. Though this is a big victory, the battle against the deformation of the university in the name of ‘reforms’ continues. The SFI CEC statement issued from New Delhi on June 25 said the process of systematic ruining of the university in the last four years has to be reversed and those guilty have to be punished. In the meantime, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has set up a 10 member standing committee to look into the modalities of the transition to three years undergraduate programme. This committee has to act proactively so that admissions for the new batch start at the earliest. Many students and parents who are from outside Delhi are already facing a lot of difficulties, as many have already reached Delhi for taking admissions. Most of the colleges have already expressed their willingness to move to the three years undergraduate programme and still the DU administration is not ready to issue fresh directives for admissions. If this continues, the SFI said, the UGC and the ministry of human resources development (MHRD) will have to intervene, for confusion and delaying tactics can’t be allowed in the name of ‘autonomy.’ As for the future of B Tech students who took admission last year, it continues to remain uncertain given the fact that the degree doesn’t have the recognition of the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE). Necessary infrastructural and administrative measures must be made to obtain the AICTE recognition. It would be naive to believe that only Dinesh Singh and his team were responsible for the imposition of the FYUP. The UGC and the MHRD, during the UPA-2 regime, played a decisive pro-FYUP role, in spite of making claims of ‘non-intervention.’ In fact, in the course of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed last year in the High Court, the MHRD had sent a letter on July 23, 2013 saying : “It (DU) has complied with all formal requirements as per the University Act, statutes and ordinance for introducing FYUP from July 2013. In view of the above, there is no ground or occasion for the ministry to take an otherwise view on an academic decision like this.” It’s clear that a host of actors --- right from the university to the bureaucracy and the government --- were actively working for the profit motives of the private and foreign educational players. During the FYUP regime and even prior to that, the SFI said, there have been massive financial irregularities in the university. In a recent reply to a right to information (RTI) query, it came to light that infrastructural funds amounting to Rs 172 crore were diverted last year for buying laptops for the FYUP students. This money was, however, supposed to be used for building new classrooms, labs and hostels in the wake of seat increase. The Sunglu committee has cited massive corruption in the university during the construction for the Commonwealth games (CWG). Massive amounts were siphoned off for Gyanoday and Antardhwani --- pet projects of the outgoing VC to showcase the FYUP. The SFI said there is the need of an elaborate enquiry into all the matters of administrative, legal and financial fraud in the university, which has put the future of thousands of students in peril. It demanded that the UGC and the MHRD must set up an enquiry committee to book all those who are guilty. The current process of so called ‘reforms’ had started with the imposition of the semester system and its impact continues to be felt even now, with drastic degradation in the overall teaching-learning process. The SFI said the UGC should start the process of reviewing the disastrous impact of the semester system. There has been dilution in the examination system of the university as well. While the marks have routinely been inflated to show better academic standards, provisions of rechecking and revaluation have been scrapped. Result has been that while the degrees have been diluted, discrepancies in the results also continue to exist. Rechecking and revaluation have to be won back, the SFI said. The SFI CEC congratulated the ‘Save DU Campaign’ --- of which the SFI has been an integral part --- for playing a consistent role in this movement, which eventually forced organisations like the pro-BJP ABVP and the pro-Congress NSUI to come out against the FYUP, and also forced the BJP to make it a part of its election manifesto. The SFI said this joint effort has to continue in the future as well, for the battle against neo-liberal reforms in higher education is far from over.