The academic blunders

That is it sounds after reading this article. Some old questions, but questions!

• It is undoubtedly true that such associations very often work as trade unions. However, the failure of the university to adhere to strict academic norms is very largely a failing of its Professoriate, that is, professors, heads, deans, etc, who, as ex-officio members of decision-making bodies, have been charged with overseeing academic standards but who seldom assert their intellectual independence. With the over two-score undergraduate colleges having a smaller voice in decision-making, the clutch of elected teachers' representatives get all the more vociferous at being marginalised by the ex-officio majority.

• So why can't Delhi University with its illustrious list of alumni and the Prime Minister among its past professors implement the semester system? To even pose the question this way is to buy into the argument that no thinking academics are left in the capital's oldest university at present, that college teachers are an ungrateful lot unwilling to innovate and work harder even after the recent pay hike, and the CEO knows best while exercising her emergency powers. These are all questionable assumptions.