Delhi University (DU) was among the first central universities to implement the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) in the 2022-23 academic year. Conceived under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the optional fourth year was intended to bring research into undergraduate education, align Indian degrees with global standards and produce academically rigorous graduates.
The experience of the first batch of students to enter the fourth year, however, has been far more uneven.
In August 2025, DU Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh said that about 55% of eligible undergraduates, roughly 31,000 of 71,000 students, had opted for the fourth year, which grants students an Honours with Research degree. The second batch is set to begin the programme this year.
Research and uncertainty
“I didn’t know what to do till my third year, so I needed a buffer,” said Aishi Mitra, an English Honours graduate from Lady Shri Ram College, class of 2026, who completed the fourth year with a psychology research component. “But I had to figure out everything on my own. Students were confused, and so was the faculty.”
For Ms. Mitra, the additional year eventually proved useful. It allowed her to move beyond conventional career options in English and strengthened her application for postgraduate study abroad. Yet she said many of her peers chose not to continue because their families needed them to start earning.
That tension between financial necessity and academic aspiration surfaced repeatedly.
Charu Singh, a political science student at Gargi College, opted for the fourth year because she aspires to work in political consultancy and pursue postgraduate study in the United Kingdom.
“Because of India’s three-year degree, we remain at a deficit,” she said.
Shrey Mehrotra, an economics Honours student at Khalsa College, said limited access to data made quantitative research difficult and that some faculty members actively discouraged students.
Jessica Joy, a B.Com (Honours) student at Jesus and Mary College, enrolled in the fourth year with clear goals but eventually withdrew. “Because of these uncertainties and the overall academic load, I decided to leave midway,” she said.
The experience, she said, also revealed how uneven access to undergraduate research could be. Her dissertation on the copper industry, she noted, was possible largely because of her social network.
“Coming from a relatively privileged background definitely helped. I was able to access data from top industry sources. At one point, I thought that if I didn’t have those connections, my thesis might have hit a dead end,” she said.
Students and teachers alike observed a pattern that those who completed the fourth year were, overwhelmingly, those who could afford to postpone entering the job market.
Infrastructure strain
Many teachers say colleges do not have the infrastructure required to sustain the additional year. With no significant increase in faculty strength, timetables have become more congested, affecting the quality of teaching and learning.
Abha Dev Habib, Associate Professor of Physics at Miranda House and Secretary of the Democratic Teachers’ Front, was unsparing in her assessment. “DU’s infrastructure already struggles to accommodate existing students,” she said.
“You are asking students to write examinations, conduct research and produce a thesis, but the first three years do not prepare them for the fourth. What sort of system are you building?”
Prof. Habib pointed to examination halls functioning in extreme heat with a single fan, and to faculty members, many on temporary contracts, being asked to supervise undergraduate research without additional support or compensation. She also criticised the grading framework, saying it penalises students whose dissertations do not culminate in publication or a patent. “They are creating a dropout culture among some of the finest brains in the country,” she said.
Her sharpest criticism, however, was directed at what she sees as the programme’s social consequences.
“DU has historically been a great equaliser,” she said, arguing that affordable fees and reservation policies enabled students from diverse social and economic backgrounds to study on relatively equal terms.
However, “students who can pursue a fourth year are those who can afford to. And in India, financial privilege and caste are rarely unrelated,” she remarked.
Published – July 05, 2026 12:36 am IST
