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The Delhi government turned a blind eye to the written request made by the ad-hoc teachers of the University to ensure the renewal of their term from 20th July 2019 and demand funds for the creation of new teaching posts. In retrospection, the office bearers, the karamcharis and the active faculty members of the Delhi University Teachers’ Association flocked the streets in front of the University Grants Commission office to express their discontent and demand immediate action.

On the 16th July 2019, the office bearers, members of the Delhi University Karamchari Union along with the members of the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) protested  against the government and the University administration.

The protest started around 11:30 a.m. on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg and carried on till 01:30 p.m. Chants of azaadi, “DU VC Down Down!”, “UGC Barbaad Ho!”, and “Hum Apna Adhikaar Maangte!” echoed as a handful of students and a large group of teachers joined the protest led by DUTA President, Dr. Rajib Ray, and DUTA Treasurer, Dr. Najma Remani, to protest the existing system ad hoc appointments, rampant corruption in the provision of Development Fund to colleges by the Vice Chanellor,  and demand timely promotions, permanent appointments for job security and service benefits, release of grants for creating new teaching posts and accommodating the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) expansion and to force stop the commercialisation of Higher Education imparted at the University of Delhi by pestering colleges to accept loans from Higher Education Funding Association (HEFA) for funding expenses on infrastructural development.

The past three weeks have remained flooded with tense conversation between DUTA and the Delhi government. On talking to professors about their struggle, Dr. Debolina, an ad-hoc professor at Ramjas College said, “The administration is just trying to create a huge pool of disposable people which it can use and then throw away when it gets a cheaper substitute. I have no security of my job as a professor; I don’t get any perks, any promotions, or service benefits. We have been protesting this culture of ‘demanding gratitude’ and ‘forcing obedience’ on us for a while now and there has been no response. If I don’t have a job for the next three months, I am going to fall in the EWS category.”

“The Delhi government has finally agreed upon paying the salaries of professors in 12 colleges funded by them and its 5% share of the development expenses but that is not enough. The 12 colleges including some premier institutions like Vivekanand College and Moti Lal Neru College also need funds for facilitating the EWS expansion and to have a higher teaching staff to meet the greater student intake in this academic session. None of this has been addressed by the Deputy Chief Minister, who also holds the Office of the Education Department, at the DHE meeting held on 12th and 15th July respectively. Although they have made a verbal commitment about releasing the 2nd tranche of OBC expansions, there is still no paperwork for it,” said Dr. Rajib Ray, President of DUTA.

Dr Swati, a professor from the Department of Germanic and Romance Studies said, “I have been on an ad-hoc appointment in the department for 12 years, and every time the University releases the applications for making permanent appointments, they refuse to entertain past experience. This has forced me to be working on such an uncertain job where I don’t know whether I will be teaching the students I am teaching now, at this time next year. Somewhere this has also impacted student psychology because they see their teachers coming and going after break-years.” “This has further created a situation where students have now started to make a choice of college not according to the best faculty but according to the most stable faculty,” said Dr. S. K. Kaushik, Professor of Mathematics, Kirori Mal College, further adding that the sole reason for this is the ‘absence of willingness of the government and the University administration’.

Despite the blazing heat, all professors matched their voices in solidarity against the fraudulent system of the University. Seeing ‘gurus’ demanding their rights, it makes one wonder, is this system really democratic and fair? If it is, then why does this democratic system turn a blind eye to the cause of its building blocks? Will the system not collapse if these building blocks disintegrate? Time will tell us, whether DU too will collapse in its essence like other Central and State Universities, or will its prestige, that comes from its strong, qualified experienced and highly intellectual teaching staff, be maintained.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Yaksh Handa

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In order to fill up the vacant seats in the reserved categories, DU’s Special Drive will consider cases of those who were left out, after the fourth cut-off.

While admissions to the unreserved seats in the University of Delhi (DU) fast drawing to an end after the release of the fourth cut-offs on July 13th 2019, the varsity has decided to conduct a Special Drive of admissions to fill up the seats in the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), and Economically Weaker Section (EWS) categories of the reserved seats. 

 

One of the most prestigious academic institutions of the country, DU has received a total of 2.6 Lakh applications to its undergraduate courses for the 2019-2020 academic intake. Of these, around 1.5 Lakh applicants are from the unreserved category and the number of aspirants in the SC, ST, and EWS categories are around 34000, 7000, and 9000 respectively. 

 

Academic Council Member Rasal Singh told the New Indian Express that during the Special Drive, the University will consider cases of those reserved applicants who were left out, “For someone who met the criteria in the first list but didn’t come up for admissions, the University will reopen the window. This particularly benefits outstation candidates, who are at times, unaware and miss the opportunity,” he said. Albeit, the University rules say that those who meet the criteria in the initial lists and don’t come for admission are not eligible in the subsequent lists. 

 

“If seats go vacant, we go for such drives. We announce the number of seats available. If you have applied and are still interested, we call a list solely for the reserved categories. There are special cut-offs for the colleges and courses available,” Sukanta Dutta, Officer on Special Duty- Admissions, said in an interview to the leading daily. 

 

Since the new academic session is all set to begin on July 20th 2019, the University is all set to finish admissions to vacant seats well in advance. 

 

Image Credits: Livemint 

 

Bhavya Pandey 

 

[email protected]

Every year, millions of students in India toil hard for admissions into foreign universities. There are many who don’t dare to dream given that the costs involved are substantially higher. Education abroad is not easy to manage, right from the screening exams to arranging visa and funds; it all requires a lot of effort. While the most important aspect of planning a course abroad is the type of university and country, another very important part is organising the funds. Choosing the right Education Loan partner will eventually help you smoothen things both, during and after the course. 

Here, we are going to talk about a scheme from State Bank of India that could offer a better solution to the issues stated above. The scheme is called Global Ed-Vantage and under this scheme, SBI offers some amazing features for students planning to study abroad. With Global Ed-Vantage, students can avail loans up to a sum of INR 1.5 Crores and repay it over a period of 15 years, that too after the course completion. The loan can be availed for graduate/ postgraduate/doctorate courses, in any discipline offered by foreign institutes or universities in USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Europe, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, and New Zealand.

Coming from India’s leading bank and with such amazing and flexible features, it is a highly recommended option for students looking for financing full-time courses abroad. Eligibility criteria and other details for Global Ed-Vantage are as below: 

Eligibility Criteria 

Courses that are funded by the Global Ed-Vantage scheme: 

  • Anyone with an enrollment or application confirmation letter from a regular institute/university conducting a graduate or post-graduate or doctorate degree can apply for SBI Global Ed-Vantage loan.
  • The loan is applicable for individuals willing to enroll in universities /colleges/ institutions located in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Europe, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, and New Zealand .

Education Expenses Eligible Under the SBI Global Ed-Vantage Loan:  

  • Primary expenses – Tuition fee, Hostel Fee, Examination Fee, Library Fee, Laboratory Fee, Transportation Fee 
  • Secondary expenses – Purchase of a laptop, books, uniform, and instrument. Fee for study tours, project work, thesis, etc.
  • Tertiary expenses – Funding for ‘RiNn Raksha’, insurance for loans by State Bank of India

Processing Fee and Rate of Interest of SBI Global Ed-Vantage Loan:

  • In order to get your funding application to study abroad processed, an initial fee of INR 10,000/- (+ GST) needs to be paid 
  • Several aspects need to be taken under consideration before approving a loan. The processing fee takes care of all these steps. SBI assures to give every individual a hassle-free experience
  • SBI Global Ed-Vantage follows the simple interest charges during the course period and moratorium period. Individuals can clear their education loan within a duration of 15 years after course completion

Security and Re-payment Details: 

  • Tangible collaterals (even third-party collaterals) are accepted 
  • Repayment plan of education loan will begin 6 months after the course completion
  • Easy Monthly Installments that are available up to the duration of 15 years after repayment has started

Global Ed-Vantage is a great initiative from SBI which will definitely fuel a lot of dreams and success stories of tomorrow. So, stop worrying about the finances and put in your best efforts to claim your seat at the world’s leading universities.  

The course fee of BMMMC offered at Indraprastha College for Women was hiked from INR 67,845 to 1,00,845. The sudden hike has left students feeling discontented.

On 3rd July 2019, Indraprastha College for Women issued a notice stating that the fee of the Bachelor’s in Multimedia and Mass Communication  (BMMMC) course had been increased from INR 67,845 to INR 1,00,845. In the annual fee breakdown, the course fee was increased from INR 15,000 to INR 44,000. 

The sudden move has been met with backlash from the students. “This is unfair to the students from marginalised communities. The University of Delhi (DU) is a public university. We expected the fee to be lower here. The course is an autonomous course but increasing the fee to 1 lakh is absurd,” said a second-year student. 

Another student added, “It”s almost a two-fold increase in the fee structure. Last year, the it was around INR 67,000. We understand that the University calls BMMMC a self-financed course, but this sudden hike is exorbitant.” 

According to the college prospectus of the academic year 2018-19, the fees for the first-year students was INR 82,000 which included development fee and establishment charges. The fees for the second and third year was set to INR 67,845. The college has now hiked the fee for second and third year students to INR 1,00,845. The fee structure for the first year students is yet to be announced. 

The deadline for submitting the college fees is the 25th July 2019. 

The college facilities remain poor despite the annual fee hike.The studio fee of INR 15,000 stands underutilized. The equipment and computer systems need to be updated. It is said that the students rarely get to visit the studio. 

The clause of the refundable ‘caution money’ of INR 3000 seems unclear. Students are required to pay the sum at the beginning of the semester,  if they don’t meet the minimum 66% requirement of attendance, the money is forfeited. If the money is forfeited, students need to pay it once again in the next semester. 

 

The high fee in a public university prevents students from marginalised backgrounds from accessing it. In a public university system where casteism still survives, fee hikes like this only strengthens the elitsm of these spaces. 

The college is yet to give a statement on the reasons behind the hike. 

Feature Image Credits: College Dunia

Jaishree Kumar

[email protected]

The aspirants at were taken aback by the mismanagement, which led to several parents and students waiting till midnight to get their admission done. 

On 1st July 2019, the second day of admissions for the first cut-off list saw over-crowding and unprofessionalism by the authorities which led to a number of students suffer till midnight. 

A source who had gone to get admission in B.A. (Programme) during the first cut-off list revealed that there was only one counter for all the courses which caused the ruckus.  He said “They collected applications from all the students and then announced their names for eligibility. It took nearly four hours to get the eligibility slip.” According to him, many parents waited till midnight and even beyond that to complete the admission process. 

Another applicant’s sister who accompanied him for admission to Shaheed Bhagat Singh College (Evening) also stated that there was major inconsistency in administrations during admissions. She revealed that she had to go there twice to complete the process, first on 30th June and then on 1st July. She said, “There was no systematic process for admissions, no proper counters or queues which created immense chaos. The students from National Cadet Corps of the college were on duty and worked diligently but I couldn’t see any teacher-in-charge supervising them or helping them resolve the chaos.” 

We contacted Mr. Sunil Kumar, Secretary, Staff Council at Shaheed Bhagat Singh College Evening who himself stayed till 11 a.m. in the College to get the admissions done. He touted over admissions as a cause for this prolongation. He revealed that despite having a capacity of 814 seats, the college has taken in 1013 admissions, wherein even now, the admissions are open for courses like B.Com (Programme), B.Com (Hons.) and some combinations of B.A. Programme. While in other colleges, a combination of Commerce and Economics in B.A Programme has 15 seats ideally, the college has admitted around 100 students. He added  “Unlike other colleges l, we did not close the admissions at 6 p.m. We cooperated and admitted all the students who were eligible. My non-teaching staff stayed back till 4 a.m. in the morning to complete procedures for everyone who had come.” He also stated that around 8 p.m. the administration announced that parents can submit their documents and leave, the authorities would complete formalities and give them their fee slips in the morning the next day, but there were many who had come from different cities and wanted to take slips with them, so they stayed in the campus grounds till late.

He also added that there was no mismanagement per se, it just took a lot of time because of the intake of students. He stated  “We have admitted 106 students against the EWS quota which only has 37 seats, 438 against Unreserved category which had 373 seats, 308 admissions were done against 219 seats from the OBC quota and 141 against 121 for ST seats. We didn’t deny admission to any student who was eligible and hence, it took a lot of time”

Feature Image Credits: Anonymous 

Sakshi Arora

[email protected] 

We help you debunk one of the most important yet fussy process of withdrawal during the University of Delhi (DU) admissions. 

  • It is extremely important to hold a seat in any one of the colleges: With the cut-off trends on a rise, we can never rely on the previous year’s lists, our marks, or any other factors. It becomes important to have a water-tight plan and a back-up. Students must always have a plan-B ready for their course or college. The first two cut-off lists will always be cruel but remember to apply with each list wherever you see your course or college of choice or back-up and secure a seat. With each list, as the cut-offs fall, you can move up on your priority list by withdrawing from the previous college and applying to the new one. Securing a seat also gives us a sense of relief and security.
  • Keep an eye on the cut-off lists and tally your best of four: If the college you took admission in after the first cut-off list is not near to what desired, keep a close eye on the successive lists that are released. As soon as the next list is out, analyse the next best option you have as per your preferences based on the course or college. Ensure your Best of Four (BoF) is properly calculated and the correct subjects from the subject list have been included. Make sure that you cross check the cut-off and other pre-requisites for your course by visiting the college or the DU website.
  • Be clear and swift with the cancellation procedure and refund:  Once certain of fulfilling the criteria, go to the web portal and cancel the admission from the dashboard. With this you will now have access to take admission, in accordance with the new cut-off list. Print the new form along with its copies to take admission in the new college. The refund will be updated in the ‘wallet’ section. A cancellation fee of INR 1000 will be deducted and this will be reflected in the ‘wallet’ section. It is important to note that only one cancellation is allowed per cut-off list. Ensure that you qualify for the cut-off in the college you wish to shift to by checking in person before you cancel your admission. Once cancelled, you cannot be re-admitted in the eventuality that you do not secure admission in the next college.
  • Collect original documents and head to the new college for admission: First, go to the college you are already admitted in and collect your original documents by showing the cancellation form and the new admission form. After this, head towards the new college and repeat the admission procedure with your application, original documents, photocopies, and three recent passport sized photographs. The admission fee will be automatically adjusted from the ‘wallet’ and you will only be required to pay the balance. If some amount is left, it will be refunded to the applicant’s account.

A step by step summary of the process:

1.Take admission in a college of preference from the cut off list. Eg. B.A. (Honours) Psychology, College C

2.When new cut-off list is released, choose a course and college and ensure you fulfill the criteria (calculation and subjects in BoF) before going to take admission. Eg. Visit College B to check cut-off and eligibility.

3.At home, cancel the previous admission and fill new form. Eg. For B.A. (Honours) Psychology at College B.

4.The fee will be adjusted on the Wallet and INR 1000 will be deducted.

5.Collect original documents from College C and head over to College B and repeat the admission procedure. The total number of cancellations allowed will be (n-1) where ‘n’ is the number of cut-off lists.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat archives

Shivani Dadhwal

[email protected]

Lady Shri Ram College for Women witnessed long queues during the admissions to first cut-off list due to lack of staff and technical issues. Volunteers played an important role throughout the process.

The corridors of Lady Shri Ram College for Women witnessed chaos and anarchy as students had a hard time during the admission procedure at the first cut off. The students who entered the gates on the first day of announcement of first-cut off list for admission to the college i.e. 28th June 2019 were stuck in the college premises till 8 p.m. after which the college declared that the admission procedure could not be continued. It was also observed that some applicants had to be stay back in the campus till 10 p.m. for completing the admission procedure. Candidates who couldn’t get admitted on the first day were compelled to report the next day and could only get admitted till 6 p.m. on 29th June 2019.

“Lack of proper execution was clearly evident as many students who got their tokens at 11 a.m. were done with the process. On the other hand, those who got their tokens at 9 a.m. kept waiting,” said Manvi Sharma, a student who witnessed the chaos herself.

Lack of staff involved in the admission process and frequent technical setbacks were cited as the primary reasons behind the colossal delay.

The outstation students had to face more problems as many had to search for an accommodation. Many missed their flights and trains, thereby obstructing their schedules. Leha, an applicant who resides in Greater Noida said, “My home is two hours away from the college. It’ll be extremely late when I reach home. The college must adhere to these issues while executing the admission procedure.

Parents had to wait for long hours which led to skirmishes between them and the administration. Rakhi, a parent who was present on the first day of admissions said, “My ward got her college enrollment form at 11 a.m. and was not able to get her admission formalities completed till 8 p.m. It was only the next day when the parents put forth their grievances, that the college followed a proper system.”

The volunteers were seen patient throughout the process. They addressed the grievances and assured both the applicants and their parents that the admissions would be completed at the earliest.

It is expected that the second cut off would unfold in a less chaotic manner unlike the first day of the verification process

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Priyanshi Banerjee

[email protected]

The Delhi High Court says that rule may be reconsidered if petitioner succeeds in petition.

The Delhi High Court has issued a notice with respect to a matter presented to it on 26th June 2019 regarding a plea challenging the rule mandating deduction of 2.5% from the total percentage of a candidate in best four subjects in case of change of stream while securing admission in the University of Delhi (DU).

The rule mentioned in section 2.2 of the Undergraduate Bulletin of Information 2019-20 states that if a student is changing streams and aspiring for admission to the University in a subject that they did not study at the senior secondary level, a deduction of 2.5% from their Best of Four percentage would be considered as their score for making it to the cut-offs; a notion that puts many students at a disadvantage keeping in view the high scores required to secure a seat in the University.

Petitioner Muskan Aggarwal, a student from the science stream, has achieved a score of 96% in the class 12th CBSE Board Examinations and wants to pursue B.A. (Hons.) Political Science from DU.

It is her case that the rule mandating deduction in the percentage of marks in case of a change in the stream is “arbitrary, discriminatory and baseless”. She cites the rationale to support her argument that if a student is scoring well then they should have the opportunity to study any subject of their choice. The Court had directed the University to file a response to the plea within a week’s time.

The University maintains that this rule has been clarified in the earlier ruling of the High Court with respect to admissions criteria for this academic year (W.P. C No.6751/2019 passed on June 14th. 2019). Keeping in view the petitioner’s vehement dispute regarding this claim, the Vacation Bench of Honorable Justice Jyoti Singh has issued the notice regarding further hearing of this matter on 5th July 2019 before the Regular Bench of the High Court.

The High Court has also clarified that the petitioner, if successful in her petition, would be granted admission as per her final marks and corresponding ranking in the merit list.

Feature Image Credits: New Indian Express

Bhavya Pandey

[email protected]

With less than a month left for the new academic session to begin, the University has hiked the annual fee for many undergraduate courses.

A bulletin released on the Delhi University website on 19th June 2019 announced the revised annual fee structure for undergraduate courses. It saw an increase of at least INR 2,000 to INR 8,000 this year.

According to Hindustan Times, the fee structure of most of the courses in Gargi college has been revised by INR 2500 to INR 3000, the fee for B.A. (Hons.) Business Economics has gone up by as much as INR 14,000. The fee for the course was INR 26, 875 last year. Now, it is INR 41,220.

As reported by Hindustan Times, Promila Kumar, Principal of Gargi College said, “The University has approved B.A. (Hons.) in Business Economics as a self-finance course.” She added, “We have to generate our own funds to pay salary to teachers besides other expenses. We are not getting any grant from the University for the course,”

The insufficient funds were considered as the main reasons by the authorities for hiking the fees.

This pattern was noticed in Hindu College also. The fee structure for many courses including B.A. (Hons.) English was INR 14,790 previously but now has been increased to INR 17,310. Ramjas College saw the fee hike from INR 10,395 to INR 13,495. The average increase in fee ranges lies between INR 1500 and INR 3500 in many colleges including Aryabhatta College, Bhaskaracharya College for Applied Sciences, Delhi College for Arts and Commerce, Deshbandhu College, Hindu College, Indraprastha College for Women, Miranda House, Motilal Nehru College, and Ramjas college.

The new bulletin also mentions the increase in fee for many courses by INR 8,000 in Ramanujan College and Institute of Home Economics. Previously, the fee for courses such as B. Sc. (Hons.) Home Science and Microbiology were INR 19,675. It  now amounts to INR 28,890.

In Janki Devi Memorial College and Shaheed Rajguru College Of Applied Sciences For Womem, the increase in fee structure is somewhere between INR 4,000 and INR 5,000.

Rakesh Jha, a member of Executive Council of the University said, “We strongly demand the rollback of fee hike as it is very much against the higher education accessible to every section of the society. The drastic cut in UGC grants has brought such a situation. Just imagine what will happen when we will be force to take loan from Higher Education Financing Agency. The result will be students’ fees in lakhs to repay the loans.”

The authorities blamed “routine revision” which has resulted in demands for rollback of the increase in fee as it was against making higher education more accessible.

(With inputs from Hindustan Times and Scroll)

Feature Image Credits: The Indian Express

Antriksha Pathania
[email protected]

Several issues are being faced by the applicants while filling up the registration form despite various attempts by the University to conduct a problem free online admission registration process.

The University of Delhi’s (DU) online registration portal went live on 30th May 2019 but the applicants have complained about issues like delay in getting the One Time Password (OTP) which is required to confirm registration and hence, complete the admission registration procedure.

Shreya, an applicant who faced hassle during the registration process said, “Most of my friends faced an issue with OTP.  We got the OTP at around 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. and by then, the 15 minute window had already expired. This led to a delay in the registration process. I was also troubled because of the issues regarding payment via card at the last stage. The portal shifted back to the payment page and it took me three days to complete the whole registration process.”

The University has enabled the edit option for editing the submitted forms once by paying an extra amount of INR 100 but the students and parents who tried editing the forms came up with the complaint that the link is non- functional.

However, some students have also successfully made use of the edit option. Nandini, another aspiring student told DU Beat, “I uploaded all my documents without signing on them and also paid the registration fee. But later when the edit option was made accessible then I could edit my form and upload the signed photocopies of the documents by paying a fee of INR 100.”

Several aspirants have complained that the integration with the Central Board of Secondary Education for conducting the admission process is troublesome as four subjects were randomly picked by the automated feed.

Many applicants also had problems with the issue of an inbuilt calculator for calculating the marks for the best four subjects. However, the DU website stated, “The registration portal neither calculates any marks for the best four subjects nor for any other purpose. Only the marks on a pro-rata basis are being displayed. However, the eligibility check tools will implement at the time of admission”.

Ritwik, a DU aspirant from Assam said, “I did not face any problems while filling up the registration form but I had a fear that what if something goes wrong while filling in the details and I had a few doubts about the form but they were easily cleared.”

Adrika Tamuly, another student told DU Beat, “The process was smooth and I did not face any glitches in the online portal while filling up the registration form and neither did any of my friends found any issues with the website.”

The online registration portal will remain active till 14th  June and the first cut off will be released on 20th June .

Priya Chauhan

[email protected]