New Delhi: The Delhi Technological University (DTU), which on one hand is blooming with its excellent placement season, on the other hand it has a stark contrast to offer.

Almost 800 students recently protested outside the university objecting its upgradation from the Delhi College of Engineering (DCE), which used to be a premier engineering college under the umbrella of Delhi University (DU).

Speaking to the National Network of Education (NNE), Public Relations Officer of DTU, Rashmi Sablania said, "The present agitation against the upgradation of DCE into DTU is largely because of certain misunderstanding created by the authorities of DU."

"Fact of the matter is that Delhi Polytechnic earlier and DCE later were only affiliated to DU for the purpose of its academic programs. It was established, funded, run and maintained by government of India (1941) and later government of Delhi (since 1963). By no stretch of imagination, either Delhi Polytechnic, the earlier avatar of erstwhile DCE or DCE could be considered as constituent institute of DU," she said.

The original application made by Delhi Polytechnic to DU in 1951 based on which DU had granted affiliation for engineering and architecture programs should dissolve the matter.

While talking to NNE, Sablania pointed out that it is an 'unnecessary' controversy, which would not have been created "If the concerned authorities of DU would have cared to look into the report of inspection committee of DU as well as the decisions of Executive Council and Academic Council of that time."

The upgradation of the premier institute has created a lot of brouhaha, first from the DU Vice Chancellor (VC) himself and now from the students and teachers of DTU on which professor P.B. Sharma, VC of DTU, told NNE that, "We well understand that the change is usually opposed largely due to misapprehensions and ignorance of the bliss, the change is to blossom. The trouble with DCE was that the non-performers who would negate any change that fosters academic and research excellence led its teachers association."

It is the primary responsibility of a university to provide quality curriculum to its affiliated institutions and NNE's sources reveal that, DU had failed to innovate and upgrade its engineering curriculum for last 30 years, which negated the growth of education quality in the premier institution (DCE).

Brand DCE was created largely because of the culture of research, innovation and professional acumen, which was embedded by the DCE faculty and management, which resulted into a high acceptability for campus placements surpassing placements of even some of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

A recent press statement from DTU claims that the current agitation is an outcome of wrong assertions of DU authorities.

The statement clearly states that, "The DTU Act has taken adequate care to protect interest of faculty members as well as students who were enrolled with DU prior to commencement of DTU Act, as can be seen from Section - 4e of DTU Act, which says - notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, existing students of the DCE who joined classes before the establishment of the university under Section 3 of this Act, shall continue to pursue their academic courses and programmes of study under the enrollment and affiliation of DU, which shall conduct examinations to them and award degrees to them upon successful completion of the courses and programmes of study there are pursuing thereat presently."

Students already enrolled with DU have not been suspended and they continue to be taught on its outdated curriculum and will receive the degrees of from the same.

The new programs started by DTU from 2009-10 are equipped with innovated curriculum at par with the best technological universities in the world.

Further, about 56 contract faculty members on regular pay-scale were added during the current academic session but moreover, 93 regular, permanent faculty positions have been advertised for and the interviews for the same have begun from today.

"Students agitating against the conversion are primarily those who are not eligible for placements due to large number of failed papers," claimed the statement.