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At DU’s centenary celebration, the PM brought up the fact that there are more girls enrolled at DU than boys. However, the classrooms paint a rather different picture.

The University of Delhi recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. Large-scale events were organised, the Prime Minister and Education Minister were invited as chief guests. In his speech, the Prime Minister congratulated DU on its 100th anniversary and highlighted the fact that more girls than boys are enrolled in DU classes. But do our classrooms deliver an identical picture?

According to The Indian Express, DU’s enrolment has dropped to a five-year low, slipping from 73,374 students in 2018-2019 to 64,915 in 2022-2023. Girls’ enrolment in UG courses plunged by 37.75 percent this year, from 54,818 in 2021 to 34,120 in 2022-2023, whereas male enrollment fell by just 1,585, from 32,380 in 2021 to 30,795 this year. Overall, girls made up 52.5 percent of the entire undergraduate student body at DU this year, compared to 62.87 percent in 2021-22.

Even before the significant drop in enrollment, these figures demonstrate that “DU has more girls enrolled than boys”. However, what is crucial to note here is the concentration of female students. The majority of these 52.5% female students are enrolled in SOLs, or women’s colleges. If one focuses on regular courses in co-ed colleges, female students in some colleges account for less than one-third of the overall student population.

According to an All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) report, the gender gap in UG programmes worsened following the pandemic. In Kirori Mal College, there are 28 girls* in BSc. (H). Mathematics, 2021-2024, a batch of 104 students. The same is true for the majority of batches. In an interview, former principal of KMC Vibha Singh Chauhan blamed the absence of a girls’ hostel as a major reason for such a wide gap in the sex ratio.

However, the case of Hindu College presents a completely different scenario. Hindu College, which has a girl’s hostel, only has 39% female students. The administration fails to provide a valid explanation behind the skewed gender ratio. A number of DU colleges started to relax female student’s cut-offs by 1%. While Sri Aurobindo College saw a 10% rise in female student enrollment following its implementation, other institutions observed no substantial change.

However, with the introduction of CUET, the implementation of this relaxation is hidden. Not only that, but the puzzling cycle of CUET and admission via CSAS (Common Seat Allocation System) also plays a significant role. Most female students from marginalised backgrounds and smaller towns struggle to get a quality education. With new hurdles planted, many end up giving up on their dreams. In an article by Feminism In India (FII), Sharda Dixit, a retired school principal, said:

The problem was especially observed amongst students coming from financially weaker backgrounds, the ones who were not able to avail the pricey coaching and the preparation guidebooks. This led to the exclusion of these students from the race and crushed their dreams underfoot. The CUET is a device to deprive students of their basic right to education.

Another major issue is women’s safety in the city and on campus. Economist Girija Broker estimated in her paper that, “for a 3% annual decrease in the probability of being raped, women attending Delhi University are willing to go to a college in the bottom 50% rather than one in the top 20%”. Broker conducted a survey of 2,700 DU students and observed that most women prefer travelling by car or the metro, even if it costs more or takes more time. On the other hand, bus is the primary form of transportation for men.

All of these studies, articles, and interviews have one thing in common: the university’s acceptance of the existence of a gender gap for the sake of it. Instead of concentrating on the reasons for such a large gender gap, even after 100 years of existence, DU is preoccupied with crafting its own hazy gender equality image. With the gender gap widening as a result of CUET, the question grows, “Are we progressing forward or backward?”

Featured Image Credits: TOI

Dhruv Bhati
[email protected]

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Campus Central

The Story of Two Exceptional CUET Batches: From a Senior to a Junior

By DU Beat September 17, 2023

The last two batches have faced unique hurdles from CUET that are unfamiliar to everyone else. So, here is a letter full of warmth written by a senior to a junior that will help the freshmen to overcome their anxiety. We got you!

Since the results of the CUET 2023 exam were released a month ago, there has been a tinge of nostalgia in the air for the Pilot Batch of CUET students. Only 8-9 months ago, we experienced the same emotions as our juniors. The paradox I experienced on the day of orientation was looking at the strange faces of juniors and finding myself there.

As a new semester began, a fresh batch of students, full of energy and excitement, toured the campus that would be their home for the next four years. They look out the creamy white corridors of my college at the high ceiling classrooms and lush green lawns. They are witnessing their seniors’ soft, welcoming smiles and the worried expressions on the faces of their classmates.

I can still feel the overwhelming emotions, anxiety, and excitement that coming in as a fresher brought about. Even while you may be eager for the future as a freshmen, there is a hidden despair. That could be the sadness of leaving your home or the stress of not knowing what lies ahead.

I’ve been in your shoes, so I understand this struggle to choose between happiness and confusion. So, before I take the role of a senior who advises juniors on these life’s curiosities, let me give you a warm hug and assure you that what you are feeling is valid. Feeling overwhelmed and exhausted is reasonable given the obstacles we had to overcome on the way.

The recent batches have faced some uncommon difficulties, including fighting the pandemic and learning online away from the comfort of a school and its warm memories. None of the previous batches had ever gone through this. In a same manner, my class of 2022 was juggling double exams and online classes. As our teachers struggled with these new adjustments, I recall how my other peers and I felt utterly unprepared to handle them. We all worked to achieve the best grades in the face of huge competition to get into this prestigious 100-year-old university.

The atmosphere around us, which is preoccupied with the idea of an ideal education and career, compels us to think about whether the suffering we are presently going through is worthy. However, the introduction of CUET was what really put our determination to the test.

Its sudden advent changed this belief system of getting good grades in the 12th system. We had no experience with competitive tests, in contrast to our peers in the Science and Math fields who had been preparing for their entrance tests for the previous two years. In our field, we are the first two batches to face this new task, which made us more anxious due to the limited resources and lack of experience from our teachers and seniors. Life taught us patience in the midst of this uncertainty and confusion.

As I followed this year’s exam as well, it felt like déjà vu to see the same things happening again, this time with juniors. The social media overloading students with information, while coaching offered a wide range of courses. The rank predictors were constantly evaluating grades and worth, and NTA’s websites crashed frequently, adding to our anxiety.

This time, I was delighted and grateful that I could help my juniors with this procedure, but at the same time, I was thinking immediately of the conversations I had with my seniors and how they told me that this system was completely foreign to them. They exclaimed, “Thank God! This didn’t occur with our batch” it matched with my exclamations of “Why our batch?” Our paths and experiences just diverged so much within a year that they were no longer related. Despite their best efforts to assist us, we were aware that we needed to prepare for the difficulties ahead. This year, a special senior-junior relationship was developing as we introduced our juniors to the idea of preference lists, informed them of the realities of college, and provided them with advice on how to ace the entrance exam.

As a new batch embarks on a new journey, I understand the plethora of emotions and doubts you are confronted with. Believe me when I say that your Batch 2022 seniors are the best people to talk to about this. I can relate to you even more when you ask naïve questions and show your apprehension because I did the same things just a few months ago. What I can tell you is that you must allow yourself to experience each of these emotions and allow the reality to sink in. Yet don’t sit around lamenting about these issues. This is the stage when anything is possible if you just take more risks and learn from your mistakes.

I also want you to know that taking competitive tests will teach you a lot of things, but the most essential lesson is learning to believe in yourself despite the little voice in your head that tells you differently.

Please remember that you can’t plan everything. It’s okay to take a step back, choose the second-best option, or modify your plans if that’s what you want to do. I want you to remember that not everyone gets into the colleges of their dreams, and that worrying about it is futile. Some of us will also be accepted to our preferred colleges, which may be disappointing if your expectations and the reality fail to match.

It can take you months to adjust to the new circumstances, and you don’t have to necessarily love all of it. What you can do is just identify things that make you happy and make good use of the resources you have.

You should also be aware that your interactions with your classmates and teachers won’t be determined by your CUET score or percentage of the 12th board. People will evaluate you and determine whether they want to be your friends based on who you are and how you treat them, regardless of how well you performed. Be honest to yourself and your goals.

And every time you think you can’t manage something or that it’s too much, go to the classrooms on the floor above you. There will be a group of students, your seniors from Batch 2022, who can identify with your problems and hear about your experiences. They will guide you and assist you as you go. By taking a look at them, you’ll be able to see how they overcame these obstacles and how you can too. They will admire your courage and patience. Then, perhaps, a senior CUET student and a fresher CUET student will walk to the canteen and talk over hot momos and coke.

Perhaps maintaining the warmth between senior and junior relationships is something that CUET couldn’t change.

And if you ever get in touch with me, I’ll give you the same advice my senior gave me: “Time flies fast; instead of overthinking, enjoy your life as a fresher; it is temporary.”

I’m hoping you’ll stick to it.

With love,

Your senior

CUET Batch 2022

Image Credits : New Indian Express

-Priya Agrawal

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Campus Central

The Sheer Obliteration of Transparency in DU PG Admissions

By DU Beat August 29, 2023

Protests about anomalies in DU’s PG admissions have recently raised concerns about the transparency of the admissions process. While many PG applicants came forward questioning the rejection of their admission applications without an adequate reason, the DU administration refuted such claims, stating that the rejection was due to failure to meet “program-specific eligibility criteria.”

The University of Delhi started its first round of seat allocation for postgraduate admissions on August 17th. Shortly after that, students began to dispute the allocation process and claim that their forms were rejected for no reason at all. This provoked widespread uproar, with student organisations such as SFI and AISA holding protests. While the disclosure of a merit list and re-consideration of rejected applications were among the primary demands, other PG aspirants want the process halted and replaced with a fresh, transparent admissions process.

The fair solution is to cancel the first round and hold it again after considering all eligible students.”

A Twitter user tweeted

Some of the major allegations against the university admission process are as follows:

Within the same category, candidates with lower marks are assigned a college, while those with higher marks are not.

One of the major concerns about the admissions process was the lack of transparency in seat allocation. DU did not officially release a merit list this year. With reports of students with low scores within the same category being assigned a college while those with better marks were not, there was a great deal of uncertainty among students.

The SFI Delhi State Committee released a statement condemning the arbitrariness of Delhi University’s M.A. admission process.

Delhi University did not release a provisional rank list or cut-off list, thereby undermining the transparency of the admission process. The criteria on which the selection of candidates depends remain unspecified.”

-SFI Delhi Instagram Post

Many applicants who were offered seats in the first round were denied admission. Students argue that no rational explanation was provided.

Many students allege that they were offered a spot in the first round of admissions but that their applications were rejected. Applicants argue that neither the college nor the admissions office provided them with a legitimate reason.

I had applied for admission in PG at DU through CUET PG 2023 and was allocated Motilal Nehru College. But the college authority abruptly rejected my allocation, citing the reason ‘invalid documents’ without even specifying the name of the document. However, the documents I uploaded are correct and valid. This is just sheer misuse of authority, and candidates like us who work so hard to get admission to such prestigious colleges feel cheated and dejected. This is happening to so many candidates, not just me.”

-Anish tweeted

Some students alleged that their forms were rejected because they were flagged as “wrong category (C1 and C2)* selection” even if the category they chose was correct.

(C1 = Those students who graduated from another recognised institution as well as those enrolled in the programme degree at DU

(C2 = students who completed their degree with honours in the subject for which they are applying.)

The uncertainty over categorization was one of the most serious and evident flaws in the admissions process. Many students were refused admission due to category selection errors. Students contend that they picked the correct category. The mistake was made by the university.

My form clearly shows my category, but still, my form got rejected, stating “wrong eligibility criteria..

– A PG applicant

Significant variance in the difficulty level of CUET PG papers and question repetition

Some disciplines’ CUET PG exams were held in two stages separated by approximately 2-3 weeks. Students who took the first phase say that the phase 2 paper was way too easy. Not only that, but several of the questions in the Phase 2 paper were repeated or restructured.

For example, CUET PG Paper for M.A. English

Question ID: 92090624040 – French_____ (structuralism) was inaugurated in the 1950s by cultural anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss.

Directly linked to Question ID: 6863409182 from Phase 1: Who among the following is not a post-structuralist critic (Levi-Strauss)?

Question ID: 92090624021 – Gorboduc, the first English tragedy, has been written in ___ (blank verse)

Repeated in: Question ID: 9209064063 – Which of the following plays was written in blank verse? (Gorboduc).

Question ID: 92090624033: Savitri, an epic in blank verse, was written by ___ (Sri Aurobindo).

Repeated from Question ID: 6863409149 from Phase 1: Savitri, a literary epic in English, was written by ____ (Sri Aurobindo).

We expected normalisation to happen, but NTA didn’t do that for us.”

-A PG aspirant who appeared for the M.A. English Entrance

Many student organisations protested against this level of dispensary in the admissions process. The Student’s Federation of India (SFI) organised a demonstration outside the Arts Faculty and handed in a memorandum calling for the admission of all competent applicants who had been wrongfully denied admission as well as for greater transparency in the admissions process. A video explaining the problems with the admissions process was also issued by SFI Delhi on their Instagram page.

The All India Students Association (AISA) also organised a protest at the admission block, calling for the prompt release of all admission lists as well as compensation for all discrepancies. Students who had been waiting for three days at the admission block to have their problems resolved joined the protest.

AISA activists reached the admission block and saw that more than 50 students were lined up in anticipation of their admission. AISA activists raised slogans against the lack of transparency and demanded that the admission in charge come out and answer all queries. The administration was adamant about not listening to the students. The admission in charge did not even bother to come out. However, the persistence of the protesters resulted in a partial victory, and the C1, C2, and CGPA change issues were solved.”

-Anjali, AISA DU Secretary

Finally, on the 21st, the university issued a notice addressing these issues, but students contend that the notice was only a formality and did not address their problems.

Those candidates who had chosen Category-1 in their applications and have been rejected due to non-fulfilment of “Programme Specific Eligibility” criteria in Category 2 will be considered in Category-1 in subsequent lists as per their merit.

Those candidates who failed to convert their CGPA score into percentage (%) despite several announcements made by the university in this regard may be able to do the CGPA to percentage conversion in the mid-entry window. Such candidates will be considered mid-entrants.”

– Notice released by the Admission Branch

Many students said they were refused entry to the admission block on the north campus. Students also alleged that the admissions branch wasn’t responding to their calls or emails.

Rejecting applications in the first round without any reason and then considering them in subsequent rounds with leftover seats is unfair.”

– Shivam, A PG Applicant

The degree of transparency of the CUET admission procedure for both UG and PG programmes has always been an important area of concern. However, such blatant carelessness and mistakes in the admission procedure cast doubt on the credibility of admission through this method and risk the future of the students. The University of Delhi is one of the biggest and most prestigious central universities in India. Such large-scale dispensaries in the admission process only serve to highlight the state of the education system in our country. To answer these questions and provide transparency in the admissions process, the university should release a merit list. Along with this, the institution should set up an experienced grievance committee that addresses student complaints respectfully and assists them with the admission process.

Image Credits: DU Updates

Dhruv Bhati

[email protected]

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Campus Central

“You Are Not Special”: Delhi HC Questions DU over Decision to Use CLAT Scores for 5-Year Law Course Admissions

By DU Beat August 20, 2023

Delhi HC has rejected DU’s preference for CLAT instead of CUET for its 5-year law courses. The respondents of the PIL are DU’s Faculty of Law, Vice Chancellor of the University, UGC and Union of India through the Ministry of Education.

On Thursday, August 17, the Delhi High Court questioned Delhi University on its decision to admit students to its new 5-year integrated law courses based on the Common Legal Admission Test (CLAT-UG) 2023 results. A petition submitted by Prince Singh, a student at DU’s Faculty of Law, challenged the University’s announcement of the 5-year integrated law courses, beginning in the academic year 2023-24. The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by him sought admission to these courses through CUET UG 2023, following the directives of the Universities Grant Commission (UGC) for central universities. The Court granted Delhi University and the Centre time until the next hearing on August 25 to file their responses to the petition.

The bench, which included Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula, stated that the Government of India, through the National Education Policy, had decided that admissions to all Central Universities would be done through the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) introduced by the Ministry of Education (MoE) and that Delhi University is “not special.”

You are not special. There is a national policy. If 18 other central universities are relying on the CUET scores for admissions, why is DU not doing the same?” the bench remarked.

The court granted the University’s counsel time to file a counter-affidavit before the next hearing on August 25. The Union of India has also been given time to “file its reply” or seek “appropriate instructions in the matter.” However, the court stressed that if no counter-affidavit is submitted by the next hearing date, the matter will be heard on the question of grant of interim relief.

Delhi University’s counsel, Advocate Mohinder S Rupal, contended that the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Yogesh Singh, formed a special committee of specialists, which delivered a detailed report to the Academic and Executive Councils of the University. During the hearing, he argued that the University only launched the 5-year integrated law degree this year and that if a stay is granted on the operation of the August 4 notification, the entire academic year will be wasted. He alleged that DU had not yet provided a schedule or timeline for admissions to its law courses.

It is not as if we are rushing the process. We haven’t started the admission process yet. The University will not issue any advertisement regarding applications for CLAT-based admissions to the 5-year law course till the next date of hearing.”- stated DU’s counsel, Mohinder Rupal.

The PIL was filed in response to a notification issued by Delhi University on August 4 announcing the introduction of the Five-year Integrated Law Courses- B.A.LLB (Hons.) and BBA.LLB (Hons.), admissions to which would be undertaken by the CLAT scores of the aspirants.

“The Bar Council of India in its letter dated 26.07.2023 has accorded its approval of 60 seats for BA LLB (Hons) and 60 seats for BBA LLB (Hons). Admission to BA LLB (Hons) and BBA LLB (Hons) shall be based on merit in the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) UG 2023 result. The classes for BA LLB (Hons) and BBA LLB (Hons) courses will be held at the Faculty of Law, Kanad Bhawan, North Campus, University of Delhi. The online application for admission to BA LLB (Hons) and BBA LLB (Hons) courses will be announced by the University soon,” stated the notification by Delhi University.

The petition contended that by issuing this notification, Delhi University has placed a “wholly unreasonable condition” that violates the Right to Equality under Article 14 and the Right to Education under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. The plea stressed that CUET is conducted in multiple languages while CLAT is held only in English, which leads to an admission advantage for a specific sub-group at DU’s Faculty of Law.

That the condition imposed for admission to the five-year integrated law courses at the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, is wholly unreasonable and arbitrary. It lacks any intelligible differentia and has no rational nexus with the object of admission to the five-year integrated law courses at the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi,” the plea by Singh stated.

Featured Image Credits: Bar and Bench

Manvi Goel

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Admissions

Simulated Rank List Released for UG Admissions

By DU Beat August 3, 2023

On July 29, DU released its simulated rank list for admissions to undergraduate programs. Candidates who registered for DU UG 2023 can access this list by logging in to the admissions website.

The university has released the rank list for candidates to assess the likelihood of admission to their preferred college/course. These tentative ranks have been allocated according to Common University Entrance Test (CUET) scores and chosen preferences.

The candidates have been given time till 11.59 pm, Sunday, to alter these preferences before the first seat allocation list is released. This can be done on the Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS) portal.

It must be noted that the simulated ranks are tentative ranks based on the scores and preferences submitted by candidates. These ranks should not be construed as a warranty, express or implied, or creation of a legitimate expectation or as final ranks for allocations of a program of study or college whatsoever”. – Haneet Gandhi, dean of admissions, DU

Final ranks are prone to change as students may add, change or delete college or program preferences till Sunday. The last saved preference will be treated as final.

The next phase of the admission process will begin on August 1, with seat allocation lists being released. Students will be able to accept their seats by August 4 and the online fee payment for the first round will be open till August 6. Inaction will be regarded as non-acceptance of the allocated seat.

Since the simulated ranks are not final and may change owing to the alteration of college-course preferences, students are confused regarding the next course of action. Some have opted to reorder preferences whereas others have decided to wait for the first allocation round.

There was a significant increase in the number of applications for admission to DU this year. The 12.7% rise is credited to the high number of candidates that appeared for the CUET. The university plans to offer 71,000 undergraduate seats across all its colleges.

Featured image credits: The Economic Times

Arshiya Pathania

[email protected]

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DU Admissions

DU to Conduct PhD Admissions via CUET from Academic Year 2023-24

By Samra Iqbal June 12, 2023

The Executive Council of the University of Delhi passed a resolution on 9th June, 2023 to conduct PhD admissions into the university via CUET from the upcoming academic year, 2023-24. Alongside this major decision, several other resolutions were adopted in the meeting, including those pertaining to the initiation of the five-year LLB programme.

This is the first time the university will be inducting students into its PhD programmes through a common test instead of conducting written tests and interviews.

“PhD admission will be done on the basis of CUET (PhD)-2023 based on the recommendation of the Standing Committee of the Academic Council, after deliberations on various matters related to admission and attendance of Undergraduate, Postgraduate and PhD programmes for the academic session 2023-24, the same were also accepted by the Executive Council (EC),” read the university statement.

The University had started conducting undergraduate and postgraduate admission via CUET-UG and CUET-PG since last year. The PhD entrance test will be through the national-based CUET-PhD (2023), conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA). However, teaching and non-teaching candidates serving in the university can directly appear for interviews. The University also added that the teaching and non-teaching staff must be permitted to attend classes and take examinations without affecting the duties assigned during office hours. Such rules for PhD will be applicable from the academic session 2023-24.

Apart from this, several other resolutions were passed at the Executive Council meeting. The eligibility condition and seat matrix recommendations of the Medical Science Course Admissions Committee (MCAC) for admission to undergraduate MBBS/BDS courses for the admission session 2023-24 were also approved. It was also decided that MSc admission to the Respiratory Therapy programme will also be under CUET-PG 2023.

The resolution to set up the Centre for Independence and Partition Studies, passed in the 1014th Academic Council meeting of the university was also approved on Friday. The centre will focus on researching about unsung heroes and freedom movements that have not found a place in mainstream history textbooks along with the tragedies and horrors of the partition.

The Council has also given approval for the formation of Tribal Studies Centre that shall be a multi-disciplinary centre focusing on various tribes of India. Additionally, establishment of Hindu Studies Centre was also passed by the EC. A Master of Arts Programme in Hindu Studies will be started under this Centre. The Council also approved to run the Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP) from the academic session 2023-24 which will be a four-year long course.

DU’s Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Mahila College, Mata Sundari Mahavidyalaya and Jesus and Mary College have been granted approval for ITEP by National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) from the session 2023-24. The education department of DU and eight colleges running B El Ed course will
apply for ITEP course for the academic year 2024-2025.

With major changes occurring in the admission process as well as university programmes, the students can only hope for a smooth and unhampered experience.

Featured Image Credits: Hindustan Times

Priyanka Mukherjee
[email protected]

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Campus Central

Fearful of Failing Language Exams, First Year Students Reapply for CUET

By DU Beat March 4, 2023

Many first year DU students who opted for regional language subjects are reapplying for CUET 2023-24 because of the fear of failing their exams owing to advanced syllabus and other administrative issues.

Several first year students enrolled in BA programme degrees who opted for regional languages are now reapplying for CUET 2023-24. They are doing so out of the fear of failing their language exams, which have an unexpectedly advanced syllabus. The students believed that they would be taught the basics of the languages they had chosen. They are unaware about basics such as the alphabets of the languages, and yet are being taught complicated literature.

The University has adopted an extremely nonchalant attitude towards the concern of these students. Its response is that nothing can be done about the issue at hand. In fact, the administration holds the students responsible for not rectifying the curriculum beforehand. The demand raised by the student body to be able to change their language subjects to either Hindi or Sanskrit has repeatedly been denied.

The syllabus had to be completed in a short span, so there was absolutely no comprehensive explanation of topics and the lectures lacked any sort of discussions.”

– Aishwarya, a first year student of Gargi College in conversation with DU Beat

The students have also complained regarding the fiasco created around the eligibility criteria. In November 2022, the document issued by the university on its website did not contain the eligibility criteria. However, when inspected by PTI, an old document with an unedited eligibility criteria was visible. This further fuelled confusion among the students.

There is also a severe delay in the appointment of teachers of language subjects. A Miranda House student of BA Programme with Political Science and Tamil as her combination has revealed that she is the only student in the college with such a combination, and a teacher was appointed to her only last week. Many students are extremely dejected, and are afraid that they will fail their end-semester exams. This apprehension is leading them to consider appearing for CUET and taking admission all over again, with different choice of subjects.

Rubani Sandhu

[email protected]

Image credit: Hindustan Times

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Admission Season

Sports and ECA Quota in DU: All You Need To Know

By Siddharth Kumar August 31, 2022

For the first time in two years, Delhi University has decided to revert back to its traditional methods of Sports and ECA quota admissions. Here’s the new (old) procedure.

Traditionally, Delhi University has always offered prospective students a chance to use their extracurricular skills to boost their chances of admission to one of the most sought after universities in the country. This procedure involved a panel that judged a combination of students’ merit certificates and trial performances to determine the grace marks that the student would receive during cutoff season.

Since the arrival of COVID-19 back in 2020, the varsity chose to rely solely on the judgement of merit certificates as the lockdown and social distancing measures made in person trials impossible. However, this year, the varsity has finally brought back offline trials as a way to judge students as well.

Seats will be offered on the basis of combined ECA merit, which will be calculated by taking 25% of the highest program-specific CUET percentage score of all the programmes in which the candidate has applied, and 75% of the highest ECA score obtained from all the categories in which the applicant has been considered,” – Haneet Gandhi, Dean of Admissions

Candidates who have represented the country on an international level, including the Olympics, Commonwealth Games or the World Cup are classified as Category A candidates. These candidates shall be granted admission without sports trials.

Any other candidates under the sports quota will be required to participate in sports trials conducted by the university. There are a total of 28 sports recognised for the supernumerary sports quota and you can find the full list here.

Procedure:

The procedure is straightforward and largely similar to the one for the admissions process through CUET.

Visit ugadmission.uod.ac.in and fill the application form.
Candidates can apply for a maximum of three sports.
Upload self-attested copies of upto a maximum of 3 Merit/Participation Sports Certificates of the preceding five years between 1st April 2017 to 30th June 2022.
Candidates are then required to upload the following necessary documents and review the submitted information.
Select the programs you wish to apply for. The university recommends that candidates choose the maximum number of programs that they fulfil the program-specific eligibility for.
Confirm program specific CUET merit score.
Select your program+college combination preferences. Once again, the university recommends that the candidates choose the maximum number of combinations.
Confirm preferences.

Not all colleges offer the same amount of seats for all sports. It is advised that candidates check if their preferred college makes reservations for their sports here.

75% of the weightage for admissions will be given to in person trial performances and 25% to a combination of merit certificates.

For full guidelines: see Section 21.2, page 43 of this document.

Siddharth Kumar

[email protected]

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