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Amidst the hype around the newly introduced four year undergraduate programme, we have been discussing what could be right and what could seriously go wrong. With that wave of discussion as well as confusion, majority of us (except the VC of course) have criticized the FYUP. Here is a flip side of the coin. A few pointers on why the FYUP might not be that bad an idea:

  • Practical Knowledge: Foundation Courses covering an array of subjects from Arts, Science, Social Sciences and Commerce backgrounds, will equip students with appropriate communication skills, mathematical ability and other such skills that are required to face real life challenges. Students are also expected to study Application papers, to encourage application-based knowledge. In the final year, students shall be expected to pursue two Research based papers/ Innovation projects, something which does not exist under the current framework for majority of the courses. Hence, the FYUP might encourage the assimilation of knowledge, and not just learning for an upcoming examination.
  • The professional ‘tag’: Supporters of the FYUP are selling the idea stating that it is a more professional course and will create employable youngsters. If we stick to social myths, a B.Tech has been the way to go. If you want to earn money, you do not do a B.Sc./B.A but rather a professional course such as B.Tech. Even with general ‘academic’ courses being awarded with a professional tag, it might actually create more employable students.
  • Integration of Sports and ECA to the curriculum: Until now, sports and ECA have not been an active part of the curriculum. With the FYUP, students have the option to gain course credit from these activities. Hence, students who often contemplate about leaving passion in these fields due to academics can actually stay on and pursue them and gain credits from the same. Heads up for encouraging extra-curricular activities!
  • Better opportunities for higher education: For students wishing to go abroad for their masters, countries such as America have had limited options. The reason being majority of reputed colleges such as the Ivy League institutions require four years of undergraduate study. People who want pursue education at these places, opt to spend a year in other interim courses to bridge the requirement. With the FYUP in place, you would be eligible for applying fresh out of college.
  • Multiple degree options: While most people have been debating that the multiple degree option in the FYUP is meant to create disparity, the fact that the course gives a ‘choice’ is one to be appreciated. For example, if my economic condition does not allow me to finish my education and I leave after two years to get job, I have a diploma and have the option of turning it into an honours degree in the future. It’s about choices.
  • Digital awareness: Not everyone grows up amidst internet access and the FYUP acknowledges that. Creating foundational courses that work on to giving basic IT understanding to everyone is a positive step. Access to laptops might work in the right direction as well. With such approach the idea is to bring everyone on the same level before the real education in their major begins.
  • A step towards an International model: Adopting the credit system leaves room for studying a certain course at your pace. We can also assume that soon like the international system, community work and internships will also contribute to your credit score. If one rather wants to concentrate on training on field, you can work on that. If someone wants to get the fundamentals right, they can work on that bit. Again, it’s about giving the student a choice of how they wish to approach their under graduation.

These are a few things that strike right about Delhi University’s four year programme. By stating these we don’t wish to contemplate that everything about the FYUP is great, but rather stress on the fact that apart from the negative debates, there exists positivity on the subject as well.

(Also See: Apprehensions about the Four Year Undergraduate Programme)

Every year, St. Stephen’s College has its own procedure for admissions. After the forms are filled, there is a release of cut-offs followed by interviews. Admissions are based on marks obtained in the Qualifying Examination(s) and on interviews held for candidates whose marks are above the cut-offs. The interview list will be out on Saturday, 22nd June. (For entire Admissions 2013 coverage click here)

Here is St. Stephen’s category wise cut-off for 2013:

Eco

Economics received the highest BFS cut-off when compared to the other courses at St. Stephen’s. The cut-off happens to be almost the same when compared to that of 2012. For the general category, the course has a requirement of 85% marks in Maths while students under the SC/ST category have an additional qualifying criteria of 80%.
Number of seats available in Economics: 100

Maths

Mathematics cut-offs have surely risen when compared to the previous year’s cut-off. For the general category, commerce students now require a BFS of 97 instead of 96.25 last year while science students need a 96.5 instead of the 96 that was present last year. The biggest leap is required by Humanities students who would now require a 94.5. The rise in cut-off is not exclusive to the general category since other categories also show a higher percentage requirement for the course than before. The BFS score should be inclusive of the applicant’s mathematics score.
Number of seats available in Mathematics: 50

english

English with its tag of one of the most sought after courses in the college, does show a slight rise in the course cut-off. Until last year, while other courses were providing admissions for English on the basis of CATE (Common Aptitude Test for English), Stephen’s has always chosen candidates on the basis of the cut-off and the interview. When compared to 2012, the cut-off for the generally category has seen a slight rise of 1% for commerce students and 0.5% for humanities students. Students from science still need an extremely high percentage of 98%, same as last year. The SC/ST category also shows a significant rise of 2-3% for students from all the three academic backgrounds.
Number of seats available in English: 60

history

History sees a slight rise in the cut-off with an increase of around 0.5-1% for the general category. The SC/ST category however, shows a steep rise of 2-3% when compared to the 2012 cut-off of St. Stephen’s.
Number of seats available in History: 60

philo

Philosophy under the general category has shown the maximum rise. The difference between the cut off for the two years reflects a change of up to 5.5%.
Number of seats available in Philosophy: 10

Sanskrit

Sanskrit with a 65% BFS requirement across all streams and categories, continues to stay the same as last year.
Number of seats available in Sanskrit: 10

chemistry

Chemistry has received a 1% rise for the general category cut off changing last year’s 95 PCM requirement to a 96 this year. With regards, to the SC/ST category the change is again significant with a difference of 4%.
Number of seats available in Chemistry: 60

physics

Physics cut off records a rise of around 0.67% across all the categories. The subject continues to stay one of the most sought after courses of the college.
Number of seats available in Physics: 60

Update: Students can check the Interview Schedule here.

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Another year, another batch and yet another bunch of earth shattering cut offs. If you’re a class 12th student about to enter college, you’re in for a treat. SRCC and St. Stephens are having yet another bumper year with all the aspiring economists vying for a golden ticket. All the budding engineers are hoarding to get into IIT Delhi (or any other, for that matter).And all the others students pursuing different streams are holding their breath as they eagerly await the first cut offs.

Among the various questionable changes being introduced in the curriculum from this academic year, the introduction BMS-Bachelor of Management Studies- is the most engaging. It is a four-year undergraduate program that has been formulated after combing BBS, BBEand BFIA. To everyone’s surprise,More than 22,000 students have applied for the course. So it’s just going to be you and 21,999 other students competing for a few hundreds seats, to say the very least. Not to dampen your spirits further and to make this article actually worth reading, let’s focus on what exactly is the entrance exam going to be like.

The marks are distributed as follows:

50% The Entrance Exam
30% The Board Result
20% Personal Interview

In order to actually reach the personal interview round, an applicant first needs to clear the written exam. Here is a list of Do’s and Don’ts that can be helpful in preparing for the exam:

  • The Test Structure: The exam will have a total of 100 questions. Although there is no set syllabus, the exam aims to test:
    • General/ Business Awareness
    • Quantitative Abilities (Mathematics)
    • Reasoning Skills
    • English.

    The format of the exam itself is still the same, so practicing from past year papers can be of great help. Practice questions can also be found on the Facebook pages of prominent institutes like Pratham, IMS, Edumentor etc. Another very useful website I stumbled upon is ‘www.indiabix.com’. It has general practice questions on most of the sections for BMS. Also, continue reading the newspaper (no, not HT City and the Delhi Times, but the main paper).

  •  Segment wise Division: Every candidate has only 120 minutes to complete the exam. So it’s better to think of a strategy before entering the exam hall. The section on General Awareness is the shortest, so that should be attempted first. The Mathematics and Critical Reasoning sections, being the lengthiest, should follow it. The English Section is relatively easy so that can be attempted in the last, keeping in mind the time constraints. It’s better to attempt an entire section at once as it helps to maintain a flow of thought.
  • Negative Marking: 1 mark will be deducted for each incorrect answer and correct answers fetch you 3 marks each. So if your unsure of an answer, it’s better to leave it blank. Also, DO NOT mark multiple answers for the same question.
  • The Examination Day– Irrespective of what you have or haven’t done, stay calm and confident. Do not clutter your mind with new things. Either you know it or you don’t know it and there is nothing you can do to change that a few hours before the exam.
  • Last Minute Worries– Last minute hassles can cause more troubles than the exam itself. Make sure that all your documents, stationery, admit card etc. are in place well in advance. Read all the instructions carefully a day or two before the exam to make sure you don’t ignore an important instruction.

Keeping all pointers apart, work hard; there is no substitute for that. Study smartly and plan your time well. These two always seem to work.

All the best!

Illustration Credit: Megha Sarogi

(For entire Admissions 2013 coverage click here)

dinesh singhRespected Mr. Dinesh Singh,

This letter is to congratulate you on your relentless pursuits to making Delhi University a world class university. I am fully aware that due to the “hurried” changes in the degree program, you have received more brickbats than bouquets, but this letter is an exception.

It has been around three years that you’ve been elected the VC of the best university in India. In your interviews you’ve maintained that the preparations for implementing the four year undergraduate programme (FYUP) started as soon as you held office. Even then you made the smart decision to implement the semester system, just to replace it with FYUP after two years. Your uncanny future planning is admirable, sir.

You’ve claimed rather vehemently that FYUP is going to increase the employability of students. I fully trust you when you imply that by studying non-core subjects more than core subjects in the span of 4 years, a pass out will be the preferred choice. I also believe you that by giving multiple exit points and still “benefiting” from the studies, a drop out with a B.A degree will get a job without really specializing in his 2/3 years of study.

Sir, I appreciate your concern for the students who wish to study in U.S.A after completing their graduation in India. Your decision to make structural changes (increasing the span from 3 years to 4 years to suit the USA model) rather than focusing on the quality of the structure (the quality of core disciplines, lessening the burden of non-core subjects) is admirable. Because you see, spending a year extra without learning extra is the goal, USA and all.

I understand you value quality education, that’s what FYUP is all about after all, isn’t it? Therefore I applaud your decision of making students study the disciplines that are in no way related to the field they want to major in. The fact that you’re making an English major aspirant from humanities background study biochemistry perfectly makes sense. Because the value of science foundation courses is so important in literature after all, that it would have been better to delete a Shakespeare text and replace it with physics.  Also, since not everyone has studied biochemistry at the high school level, college level bio-chemistry is going to be pretty much same to high school bio chemistry, so that everyone is able to study, thereby not taking college level studies a notch up. I perfectly see where you’re taking quality education with this.

You, respected sir have created an ideal university, where professors keep shouting and administrators turn a blind eye. Where students aren’t able to learn and nobody listens. Where cut offs keep rising and quality education keeps going downwards.

Congratulations sir. My heartiest wishes to you in your endeavour to achieve life, liberty and happiness, and perpetual deafness.

Yours sincerely
A student who being in second year is facing the misfortune of not studying in FYUP.

Image Credit: South Campus website

After a range of concerns surfacing amidst students, the School of Open Learning, popularly known as SOL might be getting the FYUP next academic year onwards.

SOL or School of Open Learning is Delhi University’s solution for students who prefer distance learning. The correspondence courses from the institute are a popular preference for students who want to immediately work after school while they also earn a degree. It is also an option for those who do not have a very high percentage that might be sufficient for them to earn admission in their choice of course in a regular college. However, the best part about SOL has been the fact that despite the fact that you are doing a correspondence course, the degree is the same as other colleges and is awarded by the Delhi University.

When the rest of the colleges in the Delhi University went ahead with the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) this year, it was announced that SOL would continue with the previous existing three year programme. The decision has raised a slew of apprehensions among applicants who are now looking at a three year correspondence course vis-à-vis a four year regular one. Not only does it create a disparity between the degrees awarded, it also raises questions whether the ones under the FYUP will actually be more ‘employable’.

The reason for SOL not adopting FYUP this year is the fact that the methodology of SOL courses is heavily dependent on the course material. And it is apparent that developing course material for the hurriedly formulated FYUP will certainly take time. However, SOL authorities believe that they should be able to work on the same and the FYUP should come to SOL in the coming year. At present the centre offers five undergraduate courses namely, B.A. Programme, B.Com (Pass), B.Com (Hons.), B.A. (Hons.) Political Science and B.A (Hons.) English literature. One needs to note that three of these don’t exist with the FYUP. While B.A. Programme is scrapped, B.Com has been replaced with a Baccalaureate in Commerce degree. Hence, what would happen to SOL next year with its limited set of courses is a matter of concern as well.

With drastic changes coming to the rest of the university, the changes that are in store for SOL might have been delayed, but are surely still expected.

(For entire Admissions 2013 coverage click here)

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Moksha Foundation is recently started, zealous organisation that aims at simplifying lives. Located in Naraina, this NGO focuses on 3 primary areas of work which are, promotion of green energy, taking up information based awareness programs and providing legal advice and medical aid to those who can’t afford it. It was founded by Devesh Lalwani, a recent Bachelor of Business Studies graduate from the University of Delhi. The NGO successfully executed its first project earlier this year, called ‘The Take Two Campaign’ in association with Perfetti Van Melle.

Currently, all members of the organisation are below 25 years, with many DU students in the team. Moksha Foundation hopes to bring this youthful energy to its next project called ‘Moksha Jan Utsav’ which is a 20 week program under which an integrated camp will be held every Sunday in various slum areas and lower income group colonies in West Delhi. Through this project, the NGO will address common issues faced by the residents.

The team held its first camp on June 16 at the Satsang Bhawan in Dasghara village, Pusa Institute.

A part of the camp was a multi speciality medical camp, with a range of doctors including orthopaedists and cardiologists to help patients. The residents also availed a number of tests including BMD, ECG, ECHO screening and those to check blood pressure and sugar levels. To ensure that the best doctors were on board for the camp, the NGO had tied up with Metro Heart Institute, a leading hospital located in Naraina.

moksha-2moksha-1

The next section was dedicated to providing free legal consultation on civil matters. As is observed often, those with issues hesitate to seek legal advice due to the expected time and money required. The camp bridged this gap by inviting residents to talk about their concerns to Mr Tarun Bhardwaj, the lawyer Moksha Foundation is associated with. He talked them through issues related to pension, property and so on.

Apart from that, the volunteers helped the people at the Moksha Jan Utsav by checking the status of their Aadhar cards, and even printing the cards out for them to use. In the upcoming camps, the NGO will set up a booth to assist the residents to enroll for their Voter ID cards.

Despite the rain, around 400 people came to the camp.

To ensure that cases which require long term attention are not abandoned once the camp is wrapped up, effective follow up has been planned. The project has been designed in such a way that those facing such issues can seek further help from the doctors and lawyers in the future as well, at highly subsidized rates.

Dinesh Lalwani, Chief Patron of the Moksha Foundation said:

“Its through a collective effort of society and the youth that through the passage of time, the society we live in can reach a situation of normalcy were the word ‘aid’ should be a foreign concept.”

At a time when citizens of the country frequently criticize the youth for being self centred and insensitive to important causes, NGOs such as Moksha Foundation exist to prove them wrong. With a successful beginning to the project behind them, the team is determined to help the nation, step by step.

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The Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) organised their first ever job fair on June 11 and 12, 2013 at the Delhi University Sports Complex (North Campus).  The event saw the participation of representatives from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and 45 private companies including Wipro, NIIT, VLCC, Convergys, ICICI, Axis Capital etc. The fair was inaugurated by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday.

The fair was conducted for all colleges and departments of the university. The two-day event acted as an opportunity for job seekers to be interviewed for opportunities across sectors such as IT, FMCG, real estate, health care, manufacturing, hospitality, retail and others. Students from other top educational institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Delhi College of Engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia and Amity University also participated in the fair. The event was being organised by Ventex Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. On the success of the event, Manish Thakur, Director of Ventex Hospitality Pvt Ltd said:

“It was an excellent experience to work for and organise the Delhi University’s Job Fair which happened for the first time in history.”

Besides interacting with potential recruiters, students also availed of motivational speeches by Anurag Mishra, Director, MIB, Sheila Dixit, Chief Minister of New Delhi, Yoganand Shastri, Speaker of Delhi Legislative Assembly, Oscar Fernandes, Congress leader and other corporate personalities.  Around 20,000 students attended counseling sessions, personality development and other requisite trainings.

Ashok Bhagat, Cultural Secretary, DUSU informed the statistics with regard to the participation at the job fair.

“690 students were selected in the spot placement, 1200 students got internships, and 750 are shortlisted currently. The highest package was 6.5 lakhs and the minimum package given was 1.8 lakh. It’s the first time that DUSU took such an initiative and I am happy that the event ended on a successful note.”

Image Credit: Arun Hooda’s Facebook album

DU_Logo1The Faculty members of the History Department at Delhi University recently wrote an open letter criticizing the FYUP and highlighting significant loopholes in the way in which this new undergraduate system was implemented by the University officials. Here it is:

“We are in the midst of strong protests by teachers and students against the imposition of the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) in Delhi University by the University administration. Since forums for academic discussion and debate in the University are no longer functioning, this letter from Faculty members in the History Department at Delhi University seeks to set the record straight on many details related to this issue.

1) The public needs to know that discussions regarding the new FYUP were managed by the University authorities, not in a democratic academic environment framed by University regulations, but in committees carefully screened by the University administration. The Department of History, indeed no department in the university, was involved in its formulation. We were eventually given a framework within which we were compelled to produce a syllabus for undergraduate instruction (about 35 courses to be taught in the third and fourth years of the programme) in the ridiculously short time of a fortnight, eventually changed to a month. University authorities clearly have no conception that a task of this kind requires time for serious deliberation and discussion about academic content of the courses and the pedagogic principles underlining them.

2) If the History Department was distanced from the framing of the course structure of the FYUP, it was kept entirely in the dark in the making of the compulsory ‘Foundation Courses’ to be taught to every single student in the first two years. Until recently we were actually not privy to their contents – such is the level to which the University has distanced its Faculties from itself today. All new courses in the University are supposed to be first debated in the respective Department Councils, and then passed by their Committee of Courses and finally the respective Faculties. These basic University regulations that ensure the quality and academic integrity of its courses were systematically flouted to enable the passing of the Foundation Courses. The Faculty of the History Department was not informed, nor did we participate in the recently conducted orientation programme for the History Foundation Course which was held for the first batch of specially selected college teachers.

3) Serious questions can be asked about the intellectual and pedagogical quality of the Foundation Courses prepared by the University. The Indian History and Culture Course, for instance, lacks academic rigour, refers to subjects from history while providing no context, and does not introduce students to historical methodology or serious scholarship. Some of the signatories to this letter have drawn attention elsewhere – that the course suffers from a naive and flat presentism, and fails even so much as to mention caste, class or community formation. The casualness in the preparation of this course is underlined by the fact that some of its parts are plagiarized from a Class XI CBSE textbook. Leaving the ethics of the case aside for the moment, the education of first year students in Delhi University is pegged at the same standard as the CBSE! The course has a sophisticated bibliography, but it is clear that these readings were not the inspiration for its contents or the philosophy that guided its pedagogy. A more likely hint of its sources of inspiration lie in the online materials – links to Wikipedia – to which students are also guided. This is shocking considering that teachers all over the world strongly dissuade their students from using their variable and unverifiable quality of information.

4) It is essential to keep in mind that University Education is a moment for both intellectual exploration and training in the complexities of different disciplines. Instead we have courses like the compulsory Integrating Mind, Body and Heart, which consist entirely of a foray into selective episodes in the life of Mahatma Gandhi plucked out of context and require that students model themselves on him (and him alone) in their life. Surely the goal of a modern University is to promote independent and wide-ranging thinking rather than this kind of uncritical and most un-Gandhian worship / adulation of a single individual, no matter how great s/he may be.

The protest and anxiety voiced by the signatories to this letter cuts through the differing intellectual persuasions of the members of the History Department. While the University administrators blame the University Faculties for stymieing progress and course revision, this is far from the truth. We are protesting draconian changes that are conceptually weak, irregularly framed and arbitrarily enforced.”

7:30 am:  My eyes open most reluctantly as the alarm goes off. I hit the ‘Snooze Button’ and pretend like it never even went off in the first place. I promptly go back to sleep.

8:15 am: My mother forces me to wake up by shaking me rather violently. I realise what time it is and panic for 2 minutes before I remind myself that I go through the same process every day, and hence have no reason to worry.

8:45 am: After getting ready quite hastily I drag myself to the Metro Station near my house and sleepily enter the Ladies’ Compartment.  I head off towards Noida where I’m interning this summer.

9:40 am: I finally reach the office and I’m only 10 minutes late. I make an expression like the ‘Not bad meme’ and sit down at my cubicle after greeting the other interns and my boss.

10:30 am: I’ve basically been going through a pile of paperwork and articles online, highlighting the information relevant to the project I’m supposed to research on. I look around to see what the other interns are up to and find all of them texting away at their phones. I pull my phone out to do the same.

11:15 am:  I feel (a little) guilty about being on my phone for such a long time and close all my chat and social networking site apps. I go through some more documents.

11:50 am: I decide to get myself a cup of coffee.

12:30 pm: Still going through documents and making entries in an Excel sheet. Lunch is just half an hour away, I realise happily.

1:00 pm:  Bring out the food! The interns and I head off to the canteen and sit at our usual table. The lunch thaali looks tasty today and we each buy one. Lunch hour is spent teasing each other and discussing trivial tales of our respective colleges. We also talk extensively of what would we would be doing right now if we were not interning – watching the latest movies and TV show seasons  are popular responses.

2:00 pm: Now that my stomach is full, I’m already feeling sleepy. My eyes threaten to close and my brain wants nothing more than to just doze off at the moment. But that is definitely not possible since the team has a meeting with the boss in about an hour.

2:45 pm: No one seems too pleased about the meeting. We’re all frantically finishing off our work and keeping an anxious eye on the clock.

3:30 pm: Well, I suppose it wasn’t that bad. In fact, the boss seemed happy with our progress! We spend the next hour brainstorming ideas on how to go about the next part of the project. I’m unusually alert right now.

3:50 pm: Time for another cup of coffee. Hmm, maybe some snacks too.

4:15 pm: Little more than hour to go.

4:30 pm: I strike up a conversation with the guy in the next cubicle about the latest Khaled Hosseini book. We both end up placing an order for it on Flipkart.

5:00 pm: I’m tempted to drink another cup of coffee but I manage to control myself by Googling ‘Health hazards of too much caffeine’ and convince myself that coffee is an evil addiction that must be curbed. For now, that is. I type out the weekly report I’m supposed to submit.

5:25 pm: I’m done with my work for the day but I can’t leave yet. I try to beat my Temple Run 2 high score-followed by Fruit Ninja and Paper Toss. I also list out all the things I’m going to buy with my stipend once I get it.

5:45 pm: FREEDOM AT LAST! I leave the building super-fast, as though I’ve been possessed by Flash’s spirit.

6:45 pm: I wake into my house, exhausted. I WhatsApp a few friends and sip some cold coffee.
Then I just lie down for a while. If nothing else, my internship has at least taught me to appreciate the beauty of coming back from a day’s work and doing absolutely…nothing!

Delhi University student Jasraj Bhinder from Sri Venkateswara College has been awarded the prestigious Golden Key International Honour Society’s INDIA HIGH ACHEIVER AWARD of Rs 2.5 Lakhs. The India High Achiever award is instituted by Golden Key to assist Golden Key members to further their education in India. “Jasraj Bhinder has demonstrated excellence in Academics and related academic activities during his undergraduate study. Jasraj also demonstrated how Golden Key’s Commitment to Academics Leadership and Service will be furthered by his Postgraduate study, Golden Key will award more such scholarships to deserving individuals in India” said Dr Abhiram Prabhu Golden Key’s University Relations Office For India.

“It is indeed a great honour to have received this prize and I would like to thank Golden Key for that. It is always nice to have your efforts in life to be recognised and appreciated and this award does exactly that. More importantly, it urges me to put in even more hard work in my endeavours in the future. The scholarship award will be very useful in covering the costs of my current postgraduate education and in funding my studies further in the future”.
Said Jasraj Bhinder after receiving the award from Golden Key.
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