Updated on Wednesday, July 01, 2009, 22:08 IST

New Delhi, July 01: Delhi Assembly today unanimously passed a Bill paving way for upgradation of the existing Delhi College of Engineering to Delhi Technological University.

Moving the Bill in the Assembly, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said the upgradation of the engineering college will open up new opportunities for expansion of technical education in Delhi as more courses would be introduced soon.

Dikshit said her Government has prepared a blueprint to implement the recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission, which has emphasized the need for synergy between education and research.

"Keeping this in mind, it has been decided to upgrade Delhi College of Engineering into a State University under the name of Delhi Technological University," she said adding, it will be an autonomous university.

Officials said new BE programmes in software engineering, automotive engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, engineering physics, aerospace engineering, medical engineering and nuclear science and engineering will be introduced soon.

Courses on bio-technology, nano-technology, bio-informatics, computational mathematics and MBA in knowledge and technology management and information systems management would also be introduced.

Expressing her government's resolve to improve quality of education in Delhi, Dikshit said the engineering and technological colleges will be set up under the university.

"It has been decided to offer new courses from this academic session," she said. Government's plan to add 458 new seats would commence from the current academic session.

Current strength of DCE is approximately 3000, which would go up to around 10,000 in next five years. It is also proposed to increase intake in Ph.D programmes from 25 to 225 in next five years.

The bill was supported by BJP and BSP MLAs also.

Bureau Report