Admission policy yet to be notified, DU aspirants in limbo

Every year the admissions to over 54,000 undergraduate seats in various courses across over 60 DU colleges begin days after the declaration of CBSE Class 12 results. The university notifies a detailed policy at least two weeks in advance so the students have a fair idea of the admission norms to be followed for the year.

The policy notification is followed by ‘Open Days’-counselling sessions to give prospective applicants and their parents an idea about what awaits them. However, the entire process seems to be in doldrums.

“The only clarity provided by the university so far is that the application process is going to be completely online for the first time. How are the students going to do that? What will be the arrangements? Now that the process is not offline how will supplementary documents be submitted? I have no idea about that,” said Ruchika Bhatt, an aspirant.

Another admission seeker Kanica Tyagi said: “What subjects can I count in my best-four percentage, whether girls will get some concession, how will sports quota or extracurricular activities (ECA) admissions proceed? All these questions remain unanswered. So how are we going to straightaway apply without clarity on these points.”

The university had constituted a 24-member committee – comprising deans from the faculties of science, commerce and arts, nine college principals and members from the Executive and Academic Councils, to formulate an admission policy.

They had made certain recommendations to Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Tyagi, who has not approved them yet. The registration process, which was expected to begin on May 28, will now kick off on June 1. However, the further schedule, including the application deadline, announcement of various cut-offs and last date to secure admission under a particular list has not been announced yet.

DU authorities said information bulletins would be made available to the students once the registration process begins. “We haven’t notified it in advance this year because some modalities are being finalised. However, the delay in admissions is not accidental, we plan to begin them once the PG, MPhil and PhD admissions close. Hence the date has been deferred to June 1,” a senior DU official said.

The students and parents are confused about various issues, including whether concessions will be extended to girls by some colleges, formula for calculation of best four percentage, centralised trials for admissions under sports and ECA quota and number of cut-off lists, among others. 

The question of whether or not minority institutions such as St Stephens and Jesus and Mary college will be part of the centralised process is also yet to be answered by the university authorities.