New Delhi: As students protest and agitation at the Delhi Technological University (DTU) intensify, questions continue to be raised about the upgradation of the technical institution from Delhi College of Engineering (DCE), which used to be under the umbrella of Delhi University (DU).

Various recent Right To Information (RTI) petitions filed by students and alumni of the institute reveal contradictions in the 'Delhi Technological University Bill, 2009' passed by Delhi Assembly.

Stating their objections to the 'statement of object and reasons of DTU Bill' students stated the reason to be constrained growth due to lack of autonomy.

The information was sought to obtain a copy over the proposal of DCE to overhaul the syllabus for all its engineering programmes in the past ten years on the stated reason that DCE’s affiliation with DU has curtailed its academic growth.

DTU, in its reply said that it has no records regarding such information and referred the applicant to consult the Faculty of Technology at DU.

The senior officials at Faculty of Technology however, described the procedure of overhauling, which starts with an interested college sending a proposal for syllabus revision or introduction of new subject, which is then considered by the Vice Chancellor who in turn places it before the academic council to seek their approval.

Deepak Pental, Vice Chancellor of DU said that, "Four proposals from DCE were received in the last decade which sought for the introduction of new programmes of biotechnology, polymer science, information technology and environmental engineering and were approved then and there but there has been no proposal to seek revision in syllabus."

Another senior faculty at DTU said that, "Our current VC, Mr. P.B. Sharma was holding the dual responsibility of a dean at Faculty of Technology as well as the principal of DCE from 2003 to 2006 but he didn’t take any initiative to overhaul the syllabus then."

Along with the syllabus issue lies the issue of recruitment of faculty which is given to be another valid reason for the conversion.

Recruitments made through the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) takes much longer which leads to acute shortage of faculty.

It is reported that DTU, in less than six months of its standing had introduced six MTech, four B.Tech and one MBA programme and when information was sought from the institute for the ratio of faculty members to the new programmes introduced, the reply came that, “All disciplines of B.Tech programme for first year is common and the existing faculty is self sufficient to meet the requirement. However, for the rest of the programmes more recruitment will be shortly made.”

Another factor for the conversion was the need of academic and administrative autonomy.

Shalini Narain, an alumnus of the institute said that, "Following the lines of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and PEC University of Technology, the board of governors should also be given the autonomy. According to the Bill, besides the VC, the board of proposed DTU shall comprise of three secretaries of government of Delhi, three eminent persons, two professors, two deans and a representative of the industry association- all nominated by the Delhi government. Is this what you call autonomy?"