Digital admissions begin at DU albeit with minor glitches

new delhi: In a historic moment induced by the ongoing pandemic, the Delhi University here on Monday began its coveted admissions process — completely online for the first time in its history. While some professors and admissions staff noted minor glitches in the process, the varsity maintained the process had kicked off without any major issues.

The admissions are currently on at the varsity for those who qualify under the first cut-off list - which set new records with three honours courses at the Lady Shri Ram College for Women setting a 100 per cent cut-off. The link to apply on the university portal — du.ac.in was activated at 10 am, on October 12. This year, the admissions process will be completely online, in view of the Coronavirus pandemic.

The admission process under the first cut-off will close at 5 pm on Wednesday, according to officials. This year, 1,57,934 students scored over 90 per cent marks, while 38,686 got more than 95 per cent marks in the Central Board of Secondary Education-conducted exams. While the results of several other school boards are considered, the bulk comes from the CBSE, which has been gracious with marking this year, with over 5,000 students securing 100 per cent in their best of four subjects.

The Dean of Admissions at DU, Shobha Bagai said the varsity will answer all queries online. Students have also been advised not to visit the campus in person. Several colleges have also allowed their staff to work from home during the admissions process.

The admission will be tough for students as the cut-off at the varsity has reached 100 per cent, upsetting many students. As the whole process was online, professors at the colleges, who were assigned admissions duties, said the process was slow and tedious. "This is the first time that we are witnessing a 100 per cent digital admissions process. There were technical glitches, nothing major," a professor who was on duty in the North Campus said.

However, member of the Admissions branch, Suman Kumar said that the process was smooth. "The whole process was cool and calm because earlier there used to be no place to walk as hundreds gathered at the campuses," he told Millennium Post.

Barring a few glitches, which Kumar said happened when anything is done for the first time, the whole process, by and large, was fine. "The issues we faced were mostly due to the student's confusion as they had applied to a wrong college. We have, in such a case, asked them to write an email to the university," he added.

Colleges will get the list of all applicants who have chosen a particular course in their institute. The college administration will then be allowed to filter the applicants based on their respective cut-off lists. The course in-charge of all colleges will verify the minimum qualifications, eligibility, cut-off requirement and documents uploaded by the candidates.

The admissions committee of each college will then check the applications received by the aspiring students, after which the principal of the college will approve the admission. Students whose applications will be approved will have to submit the fee and complete the admissions process.

Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court on Monday directed the Delhi University to declare the results of all the post-graduate courses by October 31 and to upload the marksheets on its website and so that no student is needed to physically come for collecting them.

The high court also fixed various deadlines for the declaration of results of undergraduate courses, between October 20 to 31 with a buffer of maximum three days from the date fixed. For BA (prog) courses, the results will be declared on November 6, a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad said.