Delhi University kick-started its year-long centenary celebrations by celebrating its founders’ day on Sunday at an event that showcased its growth from three colleges in 1922 to 90 colleges at present and its contribution to India’s struggle for Independence and nation-building.
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Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh said the impact of DU is such that it has reached every home and mind in the country. “You go to any house in Delhi and you will find DU, you go anywhere across the country to any town in any corner, you will find DU. Over the last 100 years, it has played a huge role in building the nation and it will continue to do so in the future as well,” Mr. Singh said.
Charting the growth of the university in educating women, Mr. Singh pointed out how the strength of female students increased over the century. He said there were only 82 girls studying in the university in 1930, there were 340 in 1940, 1,737 in 1950 and now in 2022, there are 3,24,067 girls studying on the campus, which is over 50% of the university’s total student strength.
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Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, the event’s chief guest, released a commemorative centenary stamp, centenary coin, centenary volume and the Delhi University Undergraduate Curriculum Framework - 2022 (Hindi, Sanskrit and Telugu versions). He also launched the centenary website of the university and felicitated Kritika Khinchi, a student of Gargi College and designer of the logo celebrating a 100 years of the university.
Guest of honour at the event, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said although only a few living universities in the country can boast of being in existence for over 100 years and Delhi University is one of them. “Delhi University is not only an institution that has 90 colleges and produced students that have made a name for themselves across the county. Delhi University is more than that. It is a sentiment, an emotion that is making the country move forward,” Mr. Pradhan said.
Research-focused approach
The Education Minister said in the future, DU will play a major role by producing graduates who are not only job seekers but job creators.
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“DU is celebrating its centenary year in the Amrit Mahotsav of the country. When the country celebrates 100 years of its independence, DU will be celebrating 125 years of its establishment. DU will have to do a lot in the field of research in the next 25 years and establish itself as an incubator of the world offering solutions to global problems,” Mr. Pradhan said. He threw open a challenge to the university to aspire to offer viable solutions to India’s top-100 problems as well as solutions for mitigating global challenges, like climate change.
The Education Minister congratulated the university for being the first to adopt the National Education Policy 2020 and its initiative in implementing the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for Central universities.
Mr. Pradhan also appealed to the alumni of the university to contribute to the university’s future. “DU has a very powerful alumni. DU had given its alumni everything and launched them into the global sphere. It is time for them to give back to the university,” Mr. Pradhan said, calling upon them to create a model for the country in alumni contribution.
Centenary Chance
As a part of its 100-year celebration, the university has offered a chance to the students who could not complete their degrees from the university to do so by registering by June 14 for the ‘Centenary Chance Examination’ .