Source: Education Times
College authorities feel the need to change the admission process from the next academic year
University of Delhi (DU) recently released its fifth cut-off list for admission to the undergraduate (UG) courses. Only a few popular courses, such as BA Honours (History) and BA Honours (English), are available at certain colleges. Also, few courses have witnessed surplus admissions.
Few of the popular Arts courses that remain available to General category candidates under the fifth cut-off list include BA Honours (English) at Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Deshbandhu College, Gargi College, Lady Shri Ram College for Women, and Ramjas College. BA Honours (History) remains available at Miranda House, Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Gargi College, Kirori Mal College, and Ramjas College.
Higher marks attained by numerous students in this year’s board exams is believed to have enhanced this phenomenon. This has also led to the need for a change in the admission process from the next academic year.
Popular courses remain available
Anju Srivastava, principal, Hindu College, says that when students score high marks, they take temporary admissions to popular courses, holding out for something better. “Sometimes, students are waiting for results of competitive exams, professional courses, or options in better UG courses at preferred colleges. In all these scenarios, taking admission into a UG course at DU is their back up choice. If they achieve their target, they pass on the admission, leading to vacant seats in even the most popular courses,” she tells.
Surplus admissions are common
Manoj Khanna, principal, Ramjas College, says, “Despite a high cut-off, we had surplus admissions to our BA Honours (Political Science) course in the first cut-off list itself. On the other hand, our BCom (Honours) course remained open for admission even in the fifth list, wherein we had reduced the required cut-off marks by 2, approximately 0.5%. With numerous students scoring high marks in their board exams, this slight change made great impact. Today, we are standing at more than 300 admissions to a course batch of around 124 seats across all categories.”
Srivastava adds that certain courses like BSc Honours (Physics) had a first cut-off of 99.7% at the college. “Despite such an extremely high cut-off, the course saw surplus admissions and had to be closed for further admission,” she says.
Major issues
Due to this process of candidates backing out of admissions at the last minute, the admissions process at DU continues for over a month, tells Khanna. “This is a waste of resources and time,” he says.
He adds that since the university does not follow a policy of first come, first serve admission, all eligible candidates must be given their rightful admission. “As a result, our infrastructure falls short. Depending upon the number of students admitted, we may have to run two batches which results in an increased workload for teachers,” he says.
Srivastava adds that if students get admission based on merit, they deserve the best education. “Lack of infrastructure is no excuse to lack in giving them the quality of education they deserve,” she says.
Possible remedies
The only possible alternative is to bring a change in the admission process, says Khanna. “Individual colleges have shared their concerns with the university administration. Discussions suggest that we may see a change in the merit-based admission process from the next academic year,” he tells
