The last day to apply is October 13. (Express photo by Praveen Khanna/ representational)The University of Delhi has granted a one-time exemption from its 28-credit promotion requirement for students admitted in the 2025–26 academic year under the NEP Undergraduate Curriculum Framework (UGCF)-2022. The change applies to students who have completed one year of study and means that they will not have to meet the requirement of securing at least 28 credits out of 44 credits to be eligible for promotion.The decision was notified by the DU Examination Branch in a notification partially modifying its earlier orders dated July 21 and September 2, 2025. The university has made clear that the relaxation is restricted to the 2025–26 batch and is a one-time measure. The 28-credit requirement has not been scrapped as a general rule for all DU undergraduate students. DU’s Examination Branch has listed the latest notification alongside its earlier notifications on passing and promotion under NEP UGCF-2022.What does the new DU rule mean for students?Under the credit-based promotion system, a student has 44 credits available across the two semesters of an academic year. The earlier rule required students to acquire 28 credits out of those 44 for promotion to the next academic year.The latest notification removes this particular condition for students belonging to the 2025–26 batch. Therefore, students from this batch who have completed their first year will not be denied promotion merely because they have obtained fewer than 28 credits out of the 44-credit requirement.For example, a student who has completed the first year but has accumulated 27 credits would ordinarily fall short of the 28-credit threshold. Under the latest one-time exemption, that student will not be stopped from promotion on the basis of failing to reach 28 credits.The exemption, however, should not be read as a blanket waiver of all examination requirements. The notification specifically provides an exemption from the requirement of obtaining 28 credits out of 44 credits. It also states that the other provisions contained in the July 21 and September 2, 2025 notifications will remain unchanged.This also means the notification does not establish a new permanent promotion criterion for DU. It creates an exception for one particular batch. Students admitted in later academic years cannot claim the same exemption simply on the basis of this order.Story continues below this adThe wording is particularly important because DU’s Examination Branch continues to list the “Passing and Promotion Criteria to the subsequent year with acquire at least 28 Credits under NEP UGCF-2022” and a revised version of that notification among its student notifications.Has DU changed its rules earlier?The 28-credit requirement itself was introduced by DU through its July 21, 2025 notification, based on resolutions of the Academic Council and Executive Council. The university’s notification framework provided for promotion to the subsequent year after acquiring at least 28 credits under NEP UGCF-2022.DU subsequently modified the implementation timeline in September 2025. The university shifted the applicability of the 28-credit criterion so that it would apply to students admitted from the 2025–26 academic year, rather than the 2024–25 batch.The latest notification is a further modification. Instead of changing the rule for every batch, DU has now provided a one-time exemption to the 2025–26 batch after its students completed one year of study. Thus, the sequence is: the 28-credit system was notified in July 2025, its implementation was subsequently shifted to the 2025–26 batch, and the same batch has now been exempted from meeting the 28-credit threshold as a one-time measure.