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The University of Delhi has mandated all affiliated colleges to give up to 10 additional percentage points to applicants who have studied one or more Modern Indian Languages (MIL) in school if they take admission in BA Programme and take up the language as a subject.

Receiving over 1,34,000 applications last year, BA programme is perhaps the most dependable course offered in Delhi University. Unlike any other course, BA programme gives you an opportunity to study various combinations of subjects.

According to the Varsity’s newly-made rule, an advantage of up to 10 percentage points will be added to an applicant’s ‘best of four’ percentage, if they choose any of the MILs, except Hindi, as one of the subjects in their combination for BA Programme.

Although at first, there were questions raised on the authenticity of this news, a DU official confirmed the veracity of the news and said, “If an applicant opts for a MIL (except Hindi) as a subject, an advantage of up to 10% may be given in ‘best of four’ in those colleges where MIL is offered as a subject. Colleges can offer anything between 2 and 10 percentage points’ advantage.”

Jagmohan Kaushik, a member of the administration department at Deshbandhu College told the DU Beat correspondent, “For years, this system of giving concession to students wanting to study MIL in higher education has been followed, in one form or another, in many colleges.”

For instance, Hindu College gives an additional seven percentage points to those opting for Sanskrit while Kirori Mal College gives additional 10 percentage points to those opting for Bengali as a subject in BA programme.

But now, the Varsity has mandated all affiliated colleges to provide concession up to 10 percentage points to those opting for these subjects. The Modern Indian Languages offered in the university are Sanskrit, Punjabi, Tamil, Urdu, Telugu and Bengali and about thirty colleges, including Hindu College, Miranda House, and Kamla Nehru College offer MIL in BA programme.“This encourages students to continue to study MIL at the undergraduate level as they get an advantage due to it,” a university official said.

While University officials said this was an attempt to promote the study of Indian languages at a higher level, not all students have welcomed this decision with open arms. Harleen Kaur, a student currently pursuing BA Programme in Miranda House told DU Beat, “This advantage will result in reverse discrimination for those of us who did not study a MIL at the school level, or those who do not wish to pursue it in higher education.”

Notably, for admission to BA Programme, students have to take one language and any three elective subjects. But those applicants who plan to change their stream will face a disadvantage of up to 5 percentage points depending on which college they apply to.

An official from the Varsity said, “A deduction of up to 5 percentage points on ‘best of four’ percentage may be imposed if there is a change of stream for admission to BA programme, which means either from commerce stream to arts/humanities/social sciences or from science stream to arts/humanities/social sciences.”


Feature Image Credits –  Indian Express 

Vaibhavi Sharma Pathak

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