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Admissions 2013

Sports Admission Guidelines

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This admission season, as per university guidelines, ECA aspirants will not get more than 15% concession from the last cutoff for a specific course in the general cutoff list. Till 2011 there was no minimum eligibility criterion for students successful in ECA trials. It is being said that putting a bar on the concession in academic merit will prevent backdoor entries in colleges and hence a maximum of 15% concession in the cutoff has been introduced.

a) Super Category: Direct Admission by the College without Trials

Sports  persons  who  have  participated / represented  the  country  in the following competition(s):

  1. Olympic Games by  International Olympic Committee
    1. World  Championships  under  International  Sports  Federations (IQA  and/or MYAS recognized / affiliated Games)
    2. Asian Games by Olympic Council of Asia
    3. Asian Championships organized by International Federation of concerned game / sport (recognized/ affiliated by MYAS and / or lOA)
    4. Commonwealth Games, S.A.F. Games and Afro-Asian Games
    5. Paralympic Games (recognized/ affiliated by IOC and / or MYAS)

b) Admission  based on Sports Trials

  1. Maximum 50 Marks for Sports Certificates
  2. It is essential for the candidate to qualify any One of the following Fitness Test items for Archery, Chess and Shooting and any Two of the following Fitness

Test  items for  other  Games/Sports  as  per the standards  laid down  by the university (for the general fitness):

1 Strength Standing broad Jump:1.65 mts for Men1.15 mts for Women Three attempts allowed
2 Endurance 1000 mts Run / Walk:5.00 mm   for Men6.00 mm    for Women One attempt allowed
3 Speed 50 mts. Dash:8.00 sec. for Men9.00 sec. for Women One attempt allowed

A candidate who qualifies the Fitness Test will be issues a certificate by the concerned college. This certificate will be accepted by other colleges too.

A maximum of 50 marks are allotted for Sports Trails, which includes skills test, game performance test, game specific fitness, fundamentals of the game/sport etc. A minimum of 18 marks are required to make a candidate eligible for sports admission. Schedule for the sports trials can be accessed from the website of individual colleges.


Image Credits: Additi Seth
[email protected]

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Admissions 2013

Open Letter from the Faculty Members of the History Department Criticizing FYUP

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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.”

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Admissions 2013

Students, Teachers Protesting against FYUP Detained

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About 150 teachers and students who had gathered to protest against the four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP) in Delhi University were arrested at India Gate on Monday. The protest was a peaceful candlelight protest and was organised by the Joint Action Front for Democratic Education (JAFDE).

There were about 500 teachers and students in all who came together at India Gate to hold a torchlight procession. All the detained teachers and students were loaded onto buses and kept in the Parliament Street Police. On this matter, S B S Tyagi, DCP, New Delhi was quoted as saying, “They didn’t have our permission to protest at India Gate. We advised them to move to Jantar Mantar but they refused. We had to detain them.”

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DUB Speak

A Day in the Life of an Intern

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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!

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Admissions 2013

DU Cut Offs 2013: What You Can Expect

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Soon after the declaration of class XII board results, DU has again found a place in news. Only this time, it’s about a new course structure, amidst expectations of a rising cut off.

Let’s have a glance at this year’s results. About 7231 students crossed the barrier of 95%. While high percentage surely would have come as relief to both parents and students, how good would be the chances a student who has scored, say, 93%, would only become clear once the cut offs are declared.

Since the 95%+ club has been inundated with students, specially Science students, an average of about 3-4 % rise seems inevitable in the cut offs of science courses, as is also evident from the fact  that 754 students have scored 98% and above in physics and 426 people got merit in biology.

Altogether 44,676 students have scored 90% and higher in the Class XII CBSE boards, and their best-of-four aggregate for undergraduate admissions is likely to be even higher as 701 students have scored 100 in Maths and 1,498 have scored 96% and above in English. A spiralling rise was seen in Accountancy were 403 students earned merit in comparison to 223 in last year and in Business Studies it is 901. It is expected that increase in cut off for commerce course will range from 0.75%-1%. With SRCC, last year, announcing an unbelievable 100% cut off (for non-commerce students), it will be very interesting to see how this year’s increase takes shape. St Stephens which announced 98% as economics honours cut off is now expected to announce cut off around 98.75% – 99%. Humanities courses are also expected to see a rise of about 1%- 2%.

(For entire Admissions 2013 coverage click here)

However, not all subjects have witnessed an increase in marks scored. In Core English, the merit certificates have gone down from 1,782 to 1,498 this year, a decrease of about 19%. In Elective English, the decrease has been around 2-3%. CATE has been scrapped and the University will be admitting students on the basis of marks after many years.

The other reason spotted for rise in this year’s cut off might be the risk of over-admitting students. Earlier, there was rampant over-admission in spite of high cut-offs. But with the increase in the number of available seats under the four-year undergraduate program, there are contradictory views that this might get balanced out too.

Moreover, it’s a new system and colleges might be very cautious and conservative, especially for the first cut-off list, but in subsequent lists, cut offs are expected to normalize. Overall, there are a number of factors to be considered—the four-year undergraduate program that will increase the total strength of Delhi University’s undergraduate classes by about a third, redistribution of seats that formerly belonged to ‘Program’ courses, removal of entrance tests in several courses and, finally, the Class XII CBSE results. The abolishing of the BA, BCom and BSc program courses has added seats to many of the honours courses and the impact this has on cut-offs, will depend largely on how many seats have been redistributed and among how many subjects.

This year it’s going to be very tricky.

Update: The cut-off for St. Stephen’s College was declared on June 21st. Check the details here.

Image credits: Surbhi Bhatia 

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Campus Central

Students of Law Fac Organise Protest March Against University Authorities

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The students of the Faculty of Law, as well as the students who are trying to take admission in the Faculty of Law, organized a huge protest march starting from the main gate of the Arts Faculty and it culminated inside the Faculty of Law. The main reason for organising this protest march was to make the University authorities aware of the malpractices that are going on with total support from the admission committee and with full guidance and support from the Dean, Faculty of Law.

There have been several cases of mental harassment as well as vulgar abuses against the existing students who have been detained due to personal biases and also against girl students who are trying to seek admission in the Faculty of Law. Several cases of students seeking admission in the Law Faculty being booed with filthy abuses have been reported. There have been several complaints regarding this from the students to DUSU. Students seeking fresh admission to the Faculty, as well as those currently enrolled, came out and joined hands, expressing their solidarity against the Dean in what has been described by some students as a “tyrannical” rule.

Current students of the Faculty have been facing constant harassment at the hands of the Dean as they have been detained on account of shortage of attendance, the stipulated requirement of which is 66%. These students spread out overall three years of the LL.B. course found themselves in these unfortunate circumstances only 4 days before the start of their end-semester examinations. When they approached the Dean and other members of the Faculty, they were humiliated, verbally abused and made to run from pillar to post. They allege that they have been detained without warning and have fallen victim to the rivalry between the Faculty and the administration. As if the testimonies of the current students did not disincentivise an admission seeker from applying to the Faculty of Law, students have been made to wait for hours on end to be able to procure and submit their LL.B. Entrance Forms in the sweltering heat. The counter to submit the forms opens an hour late and the lunch hours are flexible to the whims and fancies of the staff. Upon making a complaint, students were abused verbally and the staff did not even heed to the presence of female students and continued to use filthy language which is not expected from a faculty of their caliber.

Students, fed up with the situation, approached the DUSU Office and through its President, Shri Arun Hooda, a complaint was made. Instead of readdressing the grievances of the students, the faculty, hand in glove with the college administration, falsely framed the student leader of misconduct. The Dean’s attitude and approach has made many a student regretful of their association with the Faculty and fresh admission seekers are thinking twice before applying for admission on account of the harassment meted out to them. The protest was carried out in the Faculty premises and the students marched near Gate No.4 and a memorandum of their grievances was submitted to the University authorities. Appeal has been made by these angered student community for stringent action against the Dean and an enquiry into the issue at hand.

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DUB Speak

As We Bid Adieu

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When winter turns to spring, the trees wake up from their cold slumber as tender leaves sprout from their fragile branches, adding colour to a body that stands like a bare canvas. The ground begins to thaw as life breathes through its pores, ready to face the onset of a new year. As we say goodbye to the three years that defined our outlook towards life, our branches shake off the protective layer of ice that kept us insulated from a world where we need to dig our roots deep into the soil, choosing our own paths and charting the course of our future.

With barely a month left for the final exams to begin, our third year comrades prepare their resumes and compile their academic transcripts together in the race to get into the next phase of this never-ending journey. Some choose to fill out innumerable applications and sit for overwhelming entrances, while others run around hoping to get their professors to write letters of recommendation, smoothing the obstacle course set by foreign universities. Yet another set of aspiring adults choose to begin their budding careers, and a significant bunch take a year or two off to brainstorm on where to channel their passion.

Not all of us have enjoyed these three years. Many wait for those dreaded exams to end, the close of an old chapter and an eager turn to the next page. DU is a waste of three years, the education system is below average, many of the professors can’t speak properly, and the infrastructure is pathetic. Warnings have always rained on the years of the delusional juniors. However, what we don’t realise is that behind the dilapidated, rusted exterior, we still have special moments. Moments when we run out of our class to visit the momo or bhel puri wala before he leaves, a quick snack between classes. Moments when we take part in a competition with our friends at a popular college’s fest and come back penniless due to all the food we ate for lack of anything to do. In other cases, when we outshine everyone else and hold the trophy in our hands, a reminder that no matter how big the stage is, school, college or life, the things we’re passionate about never leave us feeling less than satisfied. All the friends you make, the parts of your college that you cherish the most, the teachers that made classes memorable for you thanks to their teaching, or even their mispronunciations.

Growing up is never easy. It’s a constant headache as you wonder what’s in store for you. Yet the day you graduate, think of it as the time to let go of the past, and look ahead to your future. Cherish the memories you have created over the past three years, as these moments never come back.

 

Image Credits: Swadha Singh

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Campus Central

A Teacher’s Anguish over Unspeakable Manner of Academic Interaction in SRCC

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It is with dismay, as a teacher, that I wish to bring to public notice an unthinkable and unfortunate incident that took place in my college, Shri Ram College of Commerce on 6th April. I am doing so for I believe that the incident is symptomatic of the wider, systematic decline in academic culture of the University of Delhi that I have been witnessing over the past few years.

As part of an academic Conference on the subject “Transformational Leadership”, Prof. Dinesh Singh, the Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University was to address students and teachers in the college auditorium at 10.00 am. I stood up, before the Vice-Chancellor started his address and had politely and barely uttered “May I take a minute”, when bouncers accompanying Prof. Singh rushed towards me and from the centre of the auditorium kept violently pushing me even though I offered no resistance; this carried on till they made sure that I was out of the auditorium.

The auditorium was full of students as classes started at 8.40 am, student volunteers were sent by organisers to each class room to announce that all teachers and students “have” to be present in the auditorium. This directive itself was unprecedented and undesirable. Many seminars and conferences are held in the college and it is left to students and teachers to voluntarily participate in those events depending on their inclinations and how they value their participation. Even a hint of coercion where the role of students and teachers is reduced to being listeners and applauders is destructive of independent and critical thinking and of the development of socially concerned individuals who will have the sensitivity and courage to stand for what they believe is right. And when it happens in the name of an “academic” event, the event is anything but academic. Many seminars and conferences are held but never had we forced anyone to attend any particular ones. However much I do not wish to say it, it did not escape anyone that such an unwelcome exercise was because the speaker in question occupies an important post and has the powers to favour or disfavour.

On 3 April 2013, Dr. M.M. Pallam Raju was our chief guest for the Annual Day. He walked in and walked out, with the Principal, teachers and alumni, the same auditorium with no security guards. Recently, when Shri Narendra Modi visited the college, his security guards did not enter the lecture venue. In another worrying first, an academic head of our own University was accompanied by bouncers. I have also learnt that before the event began teachers were asked not to occupy the first row since it had been decided that persons accompanying the VC to this academic event and interaction would be seated in the first row.

Further, to the best my knowledge, in any academic event if someone wishes time for raising any issue or express an opinion, normally they are allowed brief intervention. Sometimes, depending on the person occupying the chair, interventions from the floor are allowed while at others, the chair disallows the intervention. Physical manhandling and contact is alien to any healthy academic institution. I was not raising slogans, my voice was soft and polite and I was only seeking permission.

Of the many issues and manner in which the university administration conducting itself, I wished to bring to his notice only one – that only recently on 25th March 2013 one official under him, he being the chief academic and executive officer of the University, had directed colleges to suspend classes on 26 March 2013 in view of possible Holi-eve hooliganism and at the same time directed teachers to mark their presence. Teachers who had non-teaching assignments that day such as organisation of co-curricualr and extra-curricular activities or some assigned administrative duty were anyway supposed to come. To direct teachers to be present without having anything to do and when most colleges have no individual rooms for academic pursuit can only stem from a view which does not visualise teachers as academic workers / intellectuals who should be devoting their time to academic pursuits but as time-bound employees who earn their salary by spending time waiting for orders. Such redefining of teachers’ role carries with itself many undesirable transformations of work culture in an academic institution. Such “small” things, if repeated without critically examining all ramifications, can adversely affect motivation without which no teaching-learning, let alone quality teaching-learning, can take place. Demotivating and humiliating teachers may in the long-term produce a culture that is unthinkable today. Beyond assigned class and contact hours, it may become “normal” not to attend to or interact with students on their queries, doubts and aspirations.

This incident, to me, as a teacher, who has been the profession for over 30 years, is less an occasion for hurt or anger and more one of anguish and pessimism about the future unless such conduct is reviewed and not repeated.

In fact, one has been a hapless witness to the process of academic debate and interaction in the University where the administration speaks only to those who they pick, where meetings and Congresses are reduced to “chosen” audience addressed by “chosen” speakers. Views and counter-views are not allowed to be expressed, let alone debated, before academic decisions are taken. Counter-views, differing opinions and dissent gradually perforce can only be expressed only as protest actions, on streets.

I sincerely hope that we do not come to such a pass. Denial of democracy in academics, academic interaction and academic decision-making undermines excellence and independent thinking, and would lead to disastrous actions such as the hasty introduction of the four-year undergraduate degree course, without the due debate, scrutiny and preparation which should precede any such drastic change, seems to suggest.

-Sanjaya Kumar Bohidar
Associate Professor
Shri Ram College of Commerce
<[email protected]>

Views expressed by the writer are personal. 

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Campus Central

Teachers anxious over restructured 4-year course

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Delhi University does it again. From delay in examination results to admissions, they have now failed to restructure the to-be introduced 4-year undergraduate programme within time. Sources at DU reveal that a select group of teachers from each department had been asked to prepare the curriculum for the new course, which was to be submitted to the Vice Chancellor by the 11th of March, or as some sources say the 20th. Either way the deadline has been overshot by most departments, and with just 3 months left for the university to start enrolling students, this delay has received much flak.

The teachers have criticized the proposed reforms citing issues like shoddy infrastructure, undemocratic representation of college teachers in syllabus making, hasty and unplanned manner of increasing student workload. As a result many senior teachers have been kept in the dark and have been asked to only work on the design and their opinion has definitely not been taken into consideration as to how and why a 3 year honours programme can be diluted and converted into a 4 year course. According to a senior teacher from Miranda House, ‘DU is still trying to cope up with the changes made with the introduction of the semester system. Asking us to convert the syllabus of a rigorous 3 years honours programme, into one of 4 years that too within 15 days is something close to impossible’.

The deadline is yet to be met, and many teachers have actually opted out of the process while questioning the validity of the entire idea.

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Campus Central

Merger Of BFIA, BBE And BBS

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University of Delhi has planned on merging three courses, BFIA (Bachelor of Finance and Investment Analysis), BBE (Bachelor of Business Economics) and BBS (Bachelor of Business Studies), amidst much protest from the students of the three courses. The plan is to create a course that can be pursued as a four-year undergraduate degree.

Incidentally, the four-year undergraduate plan is already protested against by students and teachers alike. The three courses might collectively be called Bachelor of Business and Management. Total intake of the three courses is 891 divided as: BBE (554), BBS (274) and BFIA (62), and the number of seats will remain the same.

Cause of the merger, as the University has stated, is that all three courses have similar curriculum. However, the only similarity is the entrance test that is common for the courses. Also, 10 to 11 papers are unique to the courses. BFIA is a financial course, BBE is an economics-based course and BBS is a management-based one. New selection process is not likely to have GD/PIs. Foreign universities only have a roster for the current courses being offered, that is, BFIA, BBE and BBS.

Devika Chaddha, a student of SSCBS, pursuing BBS, feels that the current students of these three courses would face an “identity crisis” during placements, as the validity of the courses would be questioned. Students don’t mind a new, generalised course to be introduced, but not at the cost of BFIA, BBE and BBS. Some students don’t mind the increment of the duration by one year, as it will reduce the pressure to an extent. Instead of the merger, students are asking for enrichment of the courses by introducing new papers to the courses.

The students of these individual courses are provided with an edge over others because there is specialization at the undergraduate level, which lands them jobs, right after their graduation. A protest was held by students on Sunday, 24th March, 2013 at the Central Park to show their displeasure towards the decision.

No final decision has been taken yet, but is likely to be taken as soon as the admission process begins in the first week of April.

 

Shreya Mudgil
[email protected]

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