DU wants to work closely with remote colleges and univs

“Through this scheme, the University of Delhi proposes to throw open its faculties, library and other academic facilities available in its Departments and Colleges to partner institutions for academic cooperation and collaboration,” he said.

At a press conference Tuesday, listing achievements of the past six months since he took over charge from V-C Yogesh Tyagi — who was earlier unwell and then suspended by the President after an inquiry was initiated against him for “misconduct” and “dereliction of duties” by the Education Ministry — Joshi said he believed in the idea of “one DU” and wished for greater collaboration between departments and colleges, and interdisciplinarity “like Dinesh Singh (former DU V-C)”.

The university will also add more focus to research activities in the coming months, he said.

DU will also hold its convocation on February 27 and set up a committee for its centenary celebrations in 2022, plans for which include compiling the history of the University, and an encyclopaedia of DU.

Outlining his plans for the future, Joshi — who’s also in the running for VCship after Tyagi’s tenure ends in March — said he had two objectives in mind. “Mission 500 is the first, which is that I want DU to come in the 400-500 Rank in QS rankings. The second aim is Mission 300 whereby I want to collect Rs 300 crore for DU’s Corpus fund from alumni and friends of DU. I will start by donating Rs 1 lakh,” he said.

“I am keen that we keep continuously keep improving our rank. We have a strong research base… In the last 4.5 years, things had stopped but it was my attempt to expedite those processes. It was my attempt that people don’t see the last five years as Black years,” he added.

Joshi also said the university had made several strides in the last six months including expediting promotions and recruitment which were pending. The issue of recruitment has plagued the central university for a decade now, with an estimated 4,000 teachers still working in ad-hoc capacity.