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Many students studying Journalism Honours and Psychology Honours under CBCS guidelines received information about the Skill Enhancement Course’s external and internal assessments’ final marks distribution from their college’s faculty members close to the date of their final examination. With the dates of receiving this information varying in different colleges, students from Journalism Honours in Kamala Nehru College (KNC) learnt about the same from their teachers hours before their examination. Interestingly, the confusion of the Psychology Honours’ batch of Daulat Ram College (DRC) was clarified only upon receiving the question paper.

The discrepancy was found out in various colleges upon receiving the admit card. Students of Journalism Honours in KNC and Lady Shri Ram College (LSR) found a 50-50 marks distribution for external and practical assessment for SEC in their admit cards. While KNC students had been studying the course keeping the 50-50 distribution in mind, LSR students were uncertain as they had been following the 75-25 marks distribution, with 25 being allotted for internal assessment. Students from other colleges also underwent similar confusion. “Our admit cards said that the SEC paper that was documentary production would be of 50 marks. But the paper actually was for 75 marks.”, said Aditya, a Journalism Honours student from DCAC.

The situation varied across different colleges and different departments. In certain colleges, the final distribution came to the students’ knowledge quite late, while in certain colleges like Indraprastha College for Women (IPCW), there had been no discrepancy about the same neither in the admit cards, nor with the faculty.

The entire situation around the distribution of marks created confusion and hustle among students. “We were pretty confused since we didn’t know how the marks would be divided and how we are supposed to answer had it been for 50 marks.”, said Utkarsha, a Psychology Honours student from Daulat Ram College, where no clarification from the faculty had been received regarding the SEC Emotional Intelligence paper.

DU Beat reached out to faculty members, but received no comments from their end. There is still uncertainty whether the discrepancy had been for the Journalism Honours and Psychology Honours courses only.

Such action by the college administration as well as the faculty members makes us question whether the students’ best interests are really at heart. After all the formalities and unnecessary steps the students are forced to go through to receive their admit cards, such a massive error with regards to the marks distribution is a careless mistake by the authorities. Students who prepared accordingly, having faith in the college administration and the teachers, were shocked on the day of the examination. With all the buzz around exams and the pressure on students, why was this matter handled so inadequately by the authorities?

 

Priyal Mahtta
[email protected]

Spektrum, the two-day long commerce & management festival of Delhi College of Arts & Commerce was organized on the 24th and 25th of March, 2014. The festival, organised by the Commerce Association of DCAC was an amalgam of guest lectures, competitive events and the presence of Pulkit Samrat & Bilal Amrohi, the male leads of the upcoming Bollywood movie ‘O Teri’.

Guest Lecture Sessions

As the tagline of Spektrum’14 was, ‘Amaze. Inspire. Achieve.’, the festival opened with inspirational guest lecture by Mr. Maheshwar Peri, Founder, Outlook on the topic ‘Right Place, Right Time’. This was followed by another lecture by Mr. Anubhav Khiwani, Founder, Denetim and alumni of DCAC from the class of 2005. Apart from sharing his college memories and experience, the address had an inspirational angle to it too. “The killer instinct is always to prove yourself, so, never give up”, Mr. Khiwani said during his address.

The Array of Events

1. Polemic Foe: The Commercial Covert

The event was designed to test the knowledge, speaking skills and confidence of the selected six finalists on topics given extempore. However, this came with a twist, as each round had a covert, who was equipped with helping aid, in form of pointers related to given topic. Hence, along with the said, it also tested the presence of mind, balancing streak and ability to accurately guess and eliminate the covert.

Winner –  Anshul Gupta ( Delhi College of Arts & Commerce) 

Polemic Foe : The Commercial Covert.
Polemic Foe : The Commercial Covert.

2. Kaizen : The Inventory Management Competition

The event focused on the importance of inventory management in the cost profit relations of an organization.

Winners – Siddharth Jain & Utkarsh Srivastava (Delhi College of Arts & Commerce)

Runners Up – Vaishnavi Pathania & Monica (Motilal Nehru College)

3. The Sensatus Business Challenge

A flagship event of Spektrum’2014, SBC hosted a unique business and idea auction, inviting bids from various investors and arranging for a face off of ideas in front of a distinguished jury.

Winners – Saurabh Jain & Aashika Aggarwal ( Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies)

Runners Up –  Akshay Bansal  ( Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies)

The auction winners at SBC being felicitated by Dr. Neeru Kapoor.
The auction winners at SBC being felicitated by Dr. Neeru Kapoor.

 4. Cricket Fever: The Speculation Game

The event put to test the analytic skills, speculation and calculations of all the seventy participating teams in the game which runs in the blood of all Indians – Cricket.

Winner –  Dev Khari & Deepak Kumar (DCAC)

First Runner Up –  Arjun & Rakesh Aggarwal (DCAC)

5. Commusic – The Commerce & Music Quiz

A far more interesting quiz than the traditional grilling & tough question-answers, Commusic questioned the participating  teams on easy commerce & music related questions, something everyone related to. The concept being new was widely accepted as 70 teams participated in the fun filled event that went on for three rounds.

Winners – Sushant Aggarwal & Krishna Chaudhary ( P.G.D.A.V. College)

First Runners Up – Savan Singh & Arunav Chaudhary (Zakir Hussain College/ Ram Lal Anand College)

Second Runners Up –  Shenjit Basu & Ridhiman Roy (Delhi College of Arts & Commerce)

6. Portfolio Perfecto : The B-Plan Competition

A platform for presentation, discussion and improvement of innovative business & entrepreneurship ideas and felicitation of the best one.

Winners – Rohan Kapoor & Himanshu Garg ( Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji Institute of Technology)

Runners Up – Vipul Vaid & Shivani Garg ( Delhi Technological University)

7. Stock – O- Holic

The event which showcased an artificial simulation of a financial stock exchange with its dynamic streaks of bullish & bearish trends of market. Over 120 teams registered for the event, which went on for more than four hours.

Winners –  Adarsh & Salil Arora (Delhi College of Arts & Commerce)

Runners Up – Dilnaman Singh Sachdeva & Daljeet ( Keshav Mahavidyalaya)

8.  Odyssey – The Treasure Hunt

Winners – Ravinshu Kumar Jain, Rakesh Aggarwal & Prabhat Bahl ( DCAC)

Runners Up – Pramukesh, Ishana & Dhruv (DCAC)

9. Drift Up : The Street Dance Competition

Winners – Fairfield Institute of Management & Technology (FIMT)

Runners Up– Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology (MAIT)

10. Colors: The Online Photography Competition

First Prize  – Mahvish Hamid (Hans Raj College)

Second Prize – Chandani Khattar ( Gargi College), Vitthal Bhardwaj (Punjab University)

Third Prize – Nikhil Dhingaun ( DCAC)

The pinch of Glamour : Star Cast of ‘ O teri’

The closing ceremony of DCAC’s Spektrum was graced up by the presence of actor Pulkit Samrat & Bilal Amrohi, who had come to the college campus for the promotion of their upcoming flick – ‘O Teri’ scheduled to release on March 28th, 2014. The actors were seen interacting with students as well as teachers, distributing CDs , signing T shirts and dancing in their short fifteen minutes appearance to a packed audience desirous of witnessing more of the two leads.

The annual fest organised by the History Department of Delhi College of Arts & Commerce was held on 25th and 26th February 2014. Dharohar 2014 aimed at commemorating the centenary of the beginning of the First World War. The two day fest kicked off with a lecture by Professor Upinder Singh, author of ‘A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India’ and daughter of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. She talked about the ancient history of the city of Delhi, the remains of historical sites in the city and suburbs and how there is a constant conflict between heritage and development where eventually development gets an upper hand.

After the lecture, the college saw numerous events at the fest. The college ground was abuzz with different street play societies from various colleges for the street play competition which was won by Jesus & Mary College followed by Hansraj College. The bilingual debate centred around “This House believes that Indians are inherently racist”, where a team from ARSD was adjudged as the best team and Shivangi, a student from LSR won the prize for Best Speaker. There was also a poster making competition based on the theme ‘Meri Dilli’.

Day 2 of Dharohar 2014 started off with a talk delivered by Sucheta Mahajan who talked about how the First World War had its repercussions in India through letters written by Indian soldiers recruited by British army. She threw light on the paradoxical situation where Indians were throwing away their lives for the British with whom they were fighting for freedom.

Then we witnessed different academic and cultural events. The general quiz was won by a team of two from St. Stephens, online photography competition on ‘Mughal Influence in Delhi’ by Pallavi, a student from Cluster Innovation Centre, Swarachit Kavita by a student from P.G.D.A.V. For the dance competition, among a large number of participants, solo dance was won by Rahul Vaid from Hansraj College and duet dance by Nimisha and Bharat from Deshbhandu College.

The History Department also put up an exhibition on centenary of First World War which attracted inquisitive crowds. “It was the kind of event which you just don’t wish to get over and gives me another reason to miss college after I pass out”, said Shaurya, a final year History student at Delhi College of Arts & Commerce.

Image credits: Kaushik Barua

The annual fest of the Journalism Department of Delhi College of Arts & Commerce, Scoop 2014 started off with ‘Heads-Up’ with Sheila Dixit and M.J Akbar for a panel discussion on ‘Lok Sabha Elections 2014: Is the traditional political landscape changing in India?’.

After the interactive session, Scoop 2014 kicked off its numerous events which are to be held over two days at the college campus.

The events on Day 1 unfolded as follows:

General Quiz

Popular Quiz Master Aniket Mishra hosted the general quiz at Scoop where around 40 teams participated and cross college teams were allowed. The winning team consisted of students from St. Stephens and Jamia Millia Islamia. The runner up was a team from the host college itself.

Ad-Mad

The ad-mad event also saw a large number of participations across colleges and universities. A team from Delhi College of Arts & Commerce emerged victorious and took home cash prize worth Rs. 4000 and a travel voucher by Roads Less Travelled.

The events on Day 2 unfolded as follows:

Football Bidding

Football fans participated in the Football Bidding competition where 8 teams were shortlisted on the basis of a general football quiz among 24 teams. These teams were given an amount of imaginary 150 million dollars to buy their team among a plethora of international football players and sit for the auction. Abhinav Paliwal and Rishabh Singh Chauhan from Delhi Technological University won the First prize and Second prize was won by a team from DCAC. The winners won cash prizes worth Rs. 4000 and a complimentary dinner at Hilton Hotel.

Street Play

DCAC saw students from various colleges flocking the campus to participate in Street Play Competition. Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce’s act ‘Chidiya ki Kahani’ walked away with the First prize followed by P.G.D.AV’s ‘Jhukna Toh Humne Seekha Hi Nahi’ amongst the 10 acts shortlisted for the main event. The winners took home cash prize worth Rs. 10,000.

Photography Competition Results

The two day fest by Journalism Department concluded with the announcement of winners of Aks-Online Photography Competition with about 30 participants from various universities. The First prize went to Koyna Tomar from LSR and Second prize was bagged by Pratyoosh Kashyap from Kirori Mal College. The theme of the competition was Taboo/ Expressions. The judges were Omar Khan, a photojournalist for News X and a freelance photographer covering F1 racing at the Buddh international Circuit and Saumya Khandelwale, a freelance photographer.

Image courtesy: Aman Kumar and Namit Datta 

The conventional courses that have long been the choice of most students, might be a thing of the past. According to a report by the Hindustan Times, the applications for the Journalism and Mass Communication course in Delhi University have risen to 59,583 this year, taking a huge leap from last year’s 2,200.

Whether the sudden popularity for the course is due to the lack of an entrance examination or due to the course incorporating mass communication into the curriculum is something only applicants can tell.

It is perhaps the high demand that is leading onto the cut-offs for the course also being so demanding. While the lack of an entrance is being criticized, the fact that it didn’t happen as a lack of time is known to few. As a clarification to all existing beliefs, the syllabus for the FYUP in Journalism and Mass Communication has been a taxing process for the faculty. It was only in the first week of March that the syllabus with all the theory bits intact was finalised. With no time for the preparation of an entrance left, the only option for the University was that of opting for a cut-off. This does not at any point mean that there will not be an entrance for the course in the future

The fact that 59000 aspirants are vying for less than 250 seats is one statistic to be concerned about. Moreover the fact that most students have filled in the course as a second or third preference leads us to believe that the professional degree seems to be a back-up favourite for the aspirants.

The course is offered in six colleges namely Lady Shri Ram College for Women, I.P. College for Women, Kamala Nehru College, Kalindi College, Maharaja Agrasen College and Delhi College of Arts and Commerce. While LSR’s first cut off is at a high 97.5 for Humanities/Science students and 98.5 for Commerce students, Kamala Nehru College is offering the course at 94-96%. Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, which is the first choice for most male candidates is again at a high 97.5 for the first cut-off. Maharaja Agrasen has a cut-off of 95, while Kalindi has a 93 cut-off for the course. I.P. College for Women, the latest addition to the ‘gang’ of Journalism colleges in Delhi University has set the bar at 93-97 for the course.

What is rather astounding is that while the ‘back-up’ course comes with a 97.5 percent requirement, courses such as Political Science and Sociology which are the first preferences of many top candidates are at a lower cut-off between 95-96. The reason for the unrealistic inflated cut-offs happens to be mere paucity of seats.  The entrance based past of the course doesn’t help either, as the teachers were also unsure of what to expect.

Other apprehensions revolving around this year’s procedure are around the lack of aptitude for the course in the applicants. One might have scored more than 95% but that does not in any place mean that the person has a sound understanding of the media or of current affairs.

With such high cut-offs, sources tell us that the course has not found many takers after the first cut-off in colleges such as LSR and DCAC.

With 59,000 plus applications, does it mean that the ‘professional’ degree is suddenly hugely popular? Or does it refer to the fact that earlier only the students who were genuinely interested in the course gave the entrance examination and now with that rider away, many candidates have simply kept it as a ‘choice’?

Image credits: Guillaume Brialon