NEW DELHI: The University of Delhi has announced that from August 2025, under the NEP 2020, colleges will operate 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. with staggered faculty schedules, a minimum five-hour daily presence for teachers, senior faculty handling fourth-year teaching and guidance, and two hours of daily mentoring for at least fifteen students. The notification also refers to existing rules on class size, workload, guest faculty, and honorarium.
The announcement has provoked strong opposition from sections of the teaching community.
Rudrashish Chakraborty, Associate Professor at Kirori Mal College and DUTA executive member, called the notification “draconian, anti-teacher and anti-student.” He said the 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. schedule would overburden faculty and students, disrupt work–life balance, and endanger those travelling at odd hours.
Chakraborty called the five-hour minimum impractical in colleges without workspaces and criticised new workload norms, warning they marginalise junior staff, harm morale, and risk institutional inequality—especially in under-resourced Delhi colleges with frozen appointments.