In a recurring move by the University, a whopping twelve-fold fee hike for the English PhD programme this time has left both students and teachers enraged and aghast.
The University of Delhi’s English Department recently announced the increased fees for their PhD programme. The fee has escalated from Rs. 1,932 last year to Rs. 23,968 currently, causing shocked reactions from several groups of teachers and students.
There have been stern critics against the university’s move, with teacher and student organisations blaming the new National Education Policy as a tool to ‘privatise’ and ‘commercialise’ education.
Earlier implementation of NEP led to a 400% fee hike in Allahabad University and 100% in BHU, and the same has now happened in Delhi University.
Anjali, DU Secretary of the All India Students’ Association (AISA)
The Democratic Teachers’ Front formally protested against the fee hike via a letter addressed to Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh.
Comparisons of such fee hikes are also being done with Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) after the institution borrowed from the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA).
This has led the DU wing of the All India Students’ Association to call for investigations into the role of HEFA behind student fee hikes.
The role of HEFA has to be examined, in which government grants for universities are being replaced by loans, which also have the component of interest. Delhi University has already procured loans worth Rs. 1800 crore, which will be extracted along with interest from student’s pockets. This is a strategic attempt by both the government and the administration to push out the marginalized sections (dalits, adivasis, women, and gender minorities) out of education.
Anjali on AISA’s stance on HEFA.
The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) also criticised the fee hike, stating that it would hinder ‘access to quality education.’ They also declared that this fee hike is a ‘blatant attack on publicly funded institutions’ and ‘exacerbates financial stress on students and their families.’ Lastly, they also claim that the administration did not allow the PhD students enough time to submit their fees and were asked to pay the amount through a ‘one-day deadline’.
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad also opposed the increase in fees and highlighted the ‘lack of representation’ in central universities.
Despite such protests and opposition, the University administration is yet to make a formal public comment regarding such massive developments.
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.
In conversation with Ms Susmita Das, Physics PhD student, University of Delhi (DU), to decode the struggles of pursuing science research in contemporary India. Her specific area of research is Astronomy and Astrophysics, with broader emphasis on variable stars that is, stars that change their brightness over detectable periods of time.
Image Credits: Manav Ahuja for DU Beat
Chhavi: Science for the longest time had been a predominately male field, so, from Class 11th, where you first made the decision to pursue it, were there any struggles you faced as woman? Either from family or people in your close proximity?
Susmita: No, in that sense I feel very fortunate. We are a family of three daughters and my parents have always pushed us towards education. My family has been very encouraging. From my friends and professors, I haven’t felt any gender discrimination throughout my academic career, whether it be during school, bachelor’s, master’s or even now during research. In fact, I’ve been extremely motivated by my high school Physics teachers, Mrs. Bratati Roy Choudhury and Mr. P. C. Sarkar, among many others to pursue a career in Physics.
Chhavi :That’s so great.
Chhavi: Even in fields of science, there has always been a stereotype where astrophysics is not considered a women centric field, like most people pursue medical as one. Does that stereotype still exist and have you faced that?
Susmita: I wouldn’t say it’s a predominantly male centric field because there have been a few pioneers in astronomy who are women. As an example in the field of my research, we have a very important period-luminosity relationship which has been named after Henrietta Leavitt. However, there are few women if you compare the numbers. Of course, the institutes all over the world try to bridge the number gap between men and women nowadays- so it’s a very good time for women to be in science! A very interesting fact here is that we have the Astronomical Society of India and the current president of ASI is Dr. G. C. Anupama, a woman from IIA. It’s a female president leading the Astronomical Society of India right now, which is inspiring in itself!
Chhavi: Astronomy consists of night observations, field trips and much more that might hamper your safety. Have there been any measures to make it a more female friendly field in general?
Susmita: So, the thing about night observations is that you’re usually provided in-campus accommodation, so if you have any observation scheduled for the night, you also have the accommodation close by. And it is the same for both males and females wherever we go. However, suppose we are doing general PhD work (not night observations), say right here in Delhi University, maybe carrying out analysis in our data. When it’s night, you know it’s time to go back to the hostel, even though you may be in the momentum of getting some good work done. But then again, this is more the issue of whether we have out of campus accommodation or an in-campus accommodation. In institutes with in-campus accommodation, we wouldn’t have the constraint of leaving at say, 9PM from the lab.
Chhavi: Often women are discouraged for science research as it involves extensive years of study, and by that age they are expected to get married, with taunts like “Shaadikabkaroge?” have you faced that?
Susmita: Yes, these questions are fairly common especially during family functions. More than my immediate family, it would be other people around generally asking this question. I’m very grateful to my parents- I’ve just turned 29 but they have never pushed me to get married. Of course, my mother enquires if I have a boyfriend, if it’s stable relationship-wise and so on; it helps to have a bestfriend in my mother in that aspect! I’m from Guwahati, Assam and I think it’s not just a special case for me- I’m sure my friends from back home would agree that the focus has always been primarily on education, irrespective of gender and there has never been a pressure to get married “early”.
Chhavi: How did you feel when people ask you this question; you did an observation and on the brink of something great and people just want to know when you’re getting married?
Sushmita: When people ask me, I usually smile politely and reply that I need to get my PhD done first because I don’t want my married life to be interfering with my studies. Of course, that’s my personal opinion- I wouldn’t necessarily say that getting married during PhD is a bad idea. I have many friends and seniors who had been married and also had children during the course of their PhD, while all the time managing their professional life really well. It all depends on the person in question and how comfortable she is in balancing the different aspects of her life.
Chhavi:How do you think young women should approach their parents, wanting a career where they spend their next 7-8 years in extensive research?
Susmita: I believe having a female role model who is relatable to your own life may help. She could be, in some way, the person who leads the path. It would also be much easier to share her story as an example to your parents to convince them that she has been so focused in her academics and she’s doing really well now on her own.
Chhavi: I agree, but don’t you think it’s time that parents encourage their daughters for science research?
Susmita: Yes, yes but I think this is also changing with time. Parents are becoming more accommodating with the age their daughter is expected to get married; they don’t push that hard. Also, it’s not the case of choosing either your personal or professional life, you can choose both and maintain both in balance. I think it’s very important to balance your life well, in general. Parents are very encouraging when it comes to academics but they also worry about the future stability of their daughter, which is quite expected. However, with the changing times, parents understand (and their daughters can convince them of this well) that a stable future does not necessarily come from marriage. It’s the education that has the power to provide their daughters a stable future. If young women were to focus more on their own education, it automatically paves to a path of a much secure future.
Chhavi: Talking about representation of women in Science. Which is the female role model that you look up to or you were inspired by in the field?
Sushmita:All through childhood, I’ve been inspired by Marie Curie. My father is the kind of person who motivated me through biographies of female scientists and it started from Marie Curie. However, every child knows about Marie Curie and Einstein. But as you study deeper, you have so many more role models coming in. Like Henrietta Leavitt who has given us the period-luminosity relation or Jocelyn Bell Burnell who discovered the first radio pulsars, it’s so impressive. My role model keeps changing with time.
Chhavi: Now that you are part of this field, have you ever faced any kind of sexism?
Susmita: Personally no. but I have heard about female students who are PhD scholars and might not be very comfortable with professors. I have heard stories but personally I have not faced them.
Chhavi: What’s your opinion on the notion of “being beautiful takes away from your intelligence”?
Susmita: Do you remember the hashtag about women scientists? #distractinglysexy in response to the surprisingly sexist comment by Tim Hunt, a Nobel Laureate. I believe the women in science came together wonderfully well in protest of his unfair opinion. I think it’s really unfair if you’re expected to choose one of the two options: that you can either dress well or work well. Over the last few years, I’ve met a few incredible women scientists who are also the most beautiful or well-dressed women I’ve ever met. I’m sure people with these stereopyed thoughts are more the exception, than the norm.
Chhavi: Adding to that, Have you ever faced that you won’t be taken serious, because you are beautiful?
Susmita: No, I don’t think so. I think that is also a very generalized notion. Sure, there may be cases where people assume but never confront. But again, I’m sure there would only be a handful of people who may not consider you smart only because you’ve dressed a certain way. Suppose you give a scientific talk in front of an audience from your research field, I’m sure they’d be more interested in the science aspect rather than how you’ve dressed. That way, I don’t think it’s ever been a case.
Chhavi: What is that one big factor that you would everybody consider when they are with science as a career, especially young women who want to be a part of this field? What is one thing they should keep in mind?
Susmita: Throughout my PhD life, all I’ve learnt is that you have acceptances and rejections from the multitude of applications and proposals you keep submitting. It’s always a ride of success and failure. Of course, when you have a successful application, you are really happy and then the rejection gets you down. So, the thing is through the ups and downs, you need to keep your calm because it all averages out. We may also have many more rejections than successful applications but we shouldn’t lose hope during those times. That’s what I keep telling myself, every time I get a rejection letter. I try to think about all the successful applications I’ve had so far to keep my motivation up.
11th February is recognised as International Day of Women and Girls in Science by UN Women and UNESCO. To celebrate the integral role of women in Science and Technology, DU Beat had the privilege to interview Mrs Richa Kundu, currently pursuing PhD from Department of Physics and Astrophysics, University of Delhi.
Image Credits: Surbhit Rastogi for DU Beat.
Avni: You’re doing PhD in Science and Research, what were your qualifications prior to this that got you here?
Richa: I did my Masters, MSc in Physics from Delhi University only. Then I cleared the NET JRF Exam, which is for the fellowship. Initially, I was a Junior Research Fellow and was funded by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), MHRD and two years later, I was promoted to Senior Research Fellow.
Avni: 11th February is known as International Day of Women and Girls in Science, do you feel giving this name to a particular date, benefits women out there and promotes this area?
Richa: All that can definitely help, but to promote such things, women should actually be encouraged, because when I was in MSc., 70% of my class was female students, but as I went through Masters, I felt that mostly men are there as women in India are actually not really encouraged to pursue further research, most of my female classmates from MSc are teachers right now. After a particular age, there’s society and family pressure and they are discouraged from pursuing further studies. That mindset should change and giving a day won’t change that. Making people aware and treating women equally are the kinds of things that will change things.
Avni: There definitely exists gender disparity in your field, how have you been able to cope-up with it or manage it so far?
Richa: Personally, I haven’t encountered any such thing but I get a lot of international exposure, so I don’t see these things on international platforms, but if we consider India only, we can say that this is true for India as there’s a taboo that women should get married and have children, so the main thing is to change the point of view of people. Personally, I haven’t encountered any such thing as I am also married. I got married last year during my PhD and my in-laws and family are very supportive of my studies. I have to go to Chile for the next 10 months and my family is perfectly fine with it.
Avni: What are you currently working on in your research?
Richa: I am working on the extra-tidal region of stellar clusters. Stellar clusters are made up of thousands of stars that seem like a single star in the night sky. All the stars in a cluster were formed at the same time typically 12-13 billion years ago.
Avni: What are your plans after you complete your PhD?
Richa: I don’t have a set goal, but I have two things in mind. After this, I will apply for teaching jobs, but if I don’t get one, given the situation of India right now, I will apply for postdoctoral somewhere out of India to gain experience.
With the admissions to MPhil and PhD courses in Delhi University having begun, here’s an easy guide to help you navigate through the procedure.
The Delhi University has begun the admission procedure for students seeking admission in its MPhil and PhD courses. In a nutshell, the admission procedure for MPhil/PhD programmes is a three-step process comprising online registration followed by an entrance exam and then an interview.
Online Registration
All aspirants seeking admission to the MPhil/PhD programme are to register through the online admission portal of the University, which will remain open till 17 June 2019. This is a common web portal for centralized registration of applicants.
By clicking on the ‘New User Registration’ button, the applicants can open the ‘Login Details’ wherein they need to furnish their personal details. Following this, applicants need to confirm their registration by clicking on the link sent to their registered email ID. The applicants need to re-login to the portal and submit the following documents:
Passport size photograph
Scanned signature
Identity proof, which includes Aadhaar Card, Voter’s ID, PAN Card, Passport, Driving License, Ration Card
After furnishing all the necessary documents, the applicant can proceed to pay the application fee through net banking, credit card, debit card or UPI. The application fee for ‘Categories under Reservation’ is Rs 300 per course and for ‘UR (unreserved) and OBC’ is Rs 700 per course. The same amounts also respectively apply to these categories as registration fee for the written exam.
Following this, the applicants must choose the MPhil or PhD programme for which they wish to apply. The applicant can then proceed with the application by clicking ‘Apply’ and move on to provide educational details. PhD aspirants with approved scholarships/fellowships shall also provide details of the financial support to pursue the course.
The applicants also have to submit their ‘Research Proposal’, in case the course to which admission is being sought requires it. In this, the applicants need to provide the following details:
Proposed theme and scope of research
Major writings in the field in which the MPhil/PhD is being sought. Any original contributions in the field of proposed research should also be mentioned.
Primary sources/field work, methodology, hypothesis/research, questions and issues in the proposed field of interest, in about 2500 words
Any past research experience or publications
Additional information
The applicants may write “Not applicable” in the above fields even if the ‘Research Proposal’ is not mandatory for their chosen programme as it is not possible to proceed further if the above fields are left blank. Alternatively, the applicants may still provide these details even if they are not mandatory for their programme.
After providing the complete details, the applicants can proceed to making the fee payment by clicking ‘Pay Fee’.
A separate registration form for each programme is needed if a candidate wishes to apply to more than one programme, irrespective of whether they are in the same or different departments. The same login details would apply to all forms. However, each form requires a separate payment.
Entrance Exam
The University has provided for 18 exam centres in cities across the country, which can be selected by the applicant while filling the form. These include Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Ranchi, Trivandrum and Varanasi.
There shall be a two hour common exam for both MPhil and PhD programmes. A candidate can apply to both programmes offered by the departments by selecting the courses in their form. The syllabi for the exam of each course is the corresponding Master’s syllabus of Delhi University or as given on the department’s website.
The candidates are required to bring with them their admit card, a passport size photograph, any one of the Identity Proofs issued by the Government of India, Persons with Disability (PwD) certificate if the candidate is claiming relaxation under PwD category.
The University website will also make available the information for the display of the ‘Answer Key’ of the questions to give the students an opportunity to challenge the Key.
A 50 percent score in the exam is required to be shortlisted for the interview. The syllabus for the exam contains 50 percent questions on research aptitude/methodology and the rest subject-specific questions.
Interview
Candidates shortlisted after the exam would be called for the interview, the list for which shall be made available on the admission portal. In cases of departments that require the ‘Research Proposal’, the candidate is to bring a copy of the Proposal at the time of the interview.
Certain departments may opt for a different mode of evaluation than the interview; some departments may take a second test prior to the interview.
Announcement of Results
The results of the entrance exam and the interview shall be made available on the University website; information regarding the subsequent lists of selected candidates shall be notified on the admission portal. The selected candidates can then contact the department to furnish the necessary documents and secure their admission in the programme of their choosing.
Eligibility
A common eligibility criterion for all MPhil and PhD courses is a that the applicant must have a Master’s degree or a professional degree, such as MTech, LLM, MD or MS degree, in the same subject or subjects allied to the department to which admission is being desired, with a minimum aggregate of 55 percent marks, or an equivalent degree obtained from a foreign educational institution.
The eligibility criterion provides for a 5 percent relaxation in the minimum marks required for admission in cases of candidates belonging to the reserved categories.
Other Information
Candidates belonging to reserved categories, who figure in the merit list of unreserved candidates, are entitled to be considered for admission under the unreserved category.
Whether the ‘Research Proposal’ is required or not for the MPhil and PhD programmes can be viewed respectively in the Annexure IV and Annexure V attached in the ‘Bulletin of Information’, which can be accessed from the www.du.ac.in.
Annexure VI and Annexure VII of the Bulletin respectively mention the specific eligibility criteria for the MPhil and PhD programmes of different departments. Annexure IX provides information about the major areas of research in various departments.
Annexure XI gives a list of candidates who can appear directly for the interview, bypassing the entrance exam, if they fulfil certain qualifications and meet the minimum eligibility criteria.
All other information can be accessed through the University website.
A hunger strike took place on 1st August 2018 in the Arts Faculty of Delhi University. The protest was against the modifications in the M.Phil and PhD admission procedure, demands against the enforcement of the University Grants Commission’s Ordinance VI by DU has been put forth.
On 1st August 2018, a 12-hour long hunger strike was held at the Faculty of Arts, New Delhi. The strike emerged as a result of the implementation of the 2016 Union Grants Commission (UGC) Gazette notification regarding M.Phil/PhD admissions.
Those who contributed to the protest are against the minimum qualification criterion which requires all the students to have secured 50% marks or more in the entrance test.
The participants of the protest released a public statement before 1st August, where it was revealed that the University of Delhi (DU), as a central university, is not bound to follow the notification. There is a separate selection process, under which the various departments released an Initial Interview List after the results of the entrance test were declared.
This list, however, went on a backburner when an arbitrary notification was released overnight, stating:
“According to the amendments to ordinance VI, VI-A and VI-B regarding MPHIL and PHD, the qualifying marks in the entrance examination for all the candidates (RESERVED and UNRESERVED) is 50%.”
Student movements, thus, stemmed from a collective feeling that the aforementioned notification led to an unjustified hike in the cut-off that brought out a Revised Interview List.
Ordinance VI had been announced in theory in the month of May, and yet there was a lack of information about its implementation in the subsequent forms that were released.
A PhD aspirant, under the condition of anonymity, revealed that some of the Heads of Departments (HOD) were asked to clarify the implications of the ordinance while the students were filling their forms. The HODs assured the students at that time about the maintenance of the previous year’s procedure. When confronted about the happenings, the Heads confessed that there had been no debate, discussion, or revelation regarding the arbitrary enforcement.
The students remain appalled at this lack of transparency.
As per the DU website, the new list had 11 courses where no aspirant could qualify for the interview round. This raised a poignant question for the condition of Higher Education in India, where the new methodology blatantly ignored the gradations and flexibilities based on reservation policies across categories, and put every individual under a single umbrella of 50% marks.
Furthermore, the protestors are of the view that the new DU notification did not take into consideration the papers negative marking, which was absent in 2016.
When the uproar gained momentum, the concerned authorities responded by postponing and cancelling the interviews for PhD and MPhil courses, respectively. The Indian Express reported that the said decision was a consequence of the orders given by the Union Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD), and a meeting was conducted for senior officials. Yet the meeting failed to provide a thorough guideline concerning the next steps.
In the hunger strike, 15 students voiced their disagreement with the way DU was treating the higher educational system in India, and many protestors shared the fear that their futures were being jeopardised for no reason at all.
Those who protested through the hunger strike for more stringent modifications have put forth a list of demands, which are as follows:
1. Complete scrapping of Ordinance VI which states the qualifying marks in the entrance
examination for all the candidates (reserved and unreserved) is 50%.
2. Reinstatement of previous interview lists for all candidates from all categories.
3. Weightage given to written exam to be 80% and for the interview to be 20%.
Aakriti, a PhD aspirant, also participated in the strike and told DU Beat that their group was addressed by the Dean of Students’ Welfare, and a few teachers, but all of them only discouraged their protests, requesting them to wait for further notifications.
According to the collaborative account of the protesting students, the Vice-Chancellor has refused to acknowledge the letters and mails addressed to him, asking for justice in the matter.
Another student, wishing to remain anonymous, said over a telephonic discussion “They redirect us to different places. Sometimes, they ridicule us, they laugh at us, and sometimes they try to reassure us by telling us to contact UGC, MHRD, and others. They have no answers. This shows that there is no transparency in the entire process.”
As of now, the matter has reached the Delhi High Court, and the protesters are hopeful of the decisions that may change after the hearing on 28th August, 2018.
As reported by a leading daily, an associate professor at the University of Delhi has filed a written complaint to the Vice-chancellor alleging discrepancies in the admission procedure for PhD candidates in the Urdu Department.
Khalid Alvi who is an associate professor at Zakir Hussain College(Morning), and a renowned Urdu poet and critic, has cited irregularities in the admission procedure with respect to disregard of a meritorious female student whose name was not included in the final list of candidates selected for Ph.D course in Urdu, under the Department of Urdu, Delhi University. Adding on, he also pointed out that his signature was removed from this final list. Regarding the same, he has sent an email and a follow-up letter to the Vice-Chancellor requesting urgent address and seeking permission to file a FIR on the matter.
Speaking to Indian express, he claimed that one of the faculty members taking interviews of shortlisted candidates pressurised the girl to apply for the M.Phil. course over a PhD Agreeing to the professor’s claim, the girl told Indian Express, “When I refused the professor’s offer of taking admission in M.Phil., he told me he would hit me with hard questions during the interview. I was asked questions as if I had applied for a faculty member’s position.”
When DU Beat approached Dr Ibne Kanwal, Alvi’s colleague and Head of Department Research Committee(DRC), he dismissed these claims and said, “It’s not necessary that every gold medallist can perform well in interviews. She performed poorly, and Dr Khalid Alvi himself arrived late. He also left early, and hence his signature was not present in the final list, whereas the rest of the committee have theirs.” The entrance exam for admission into the course was conducted on 5th July and interviews for shortlisted candidates held on 30th August. The final list of selected candidates for PhD in Urdu was released on the DU website on 5th September and the admission procedure for the same was on until 15th September.
The University of Delhi is one of the most competitive places to secure a seat. With the ever increasing cut-throat completion and the advent of seat cuts in higher education, it is now especially tough to pursue post graduate-research courses. In this condition, if you come to know that for you can qualify for PhD interview even when you scored zero marks in the entrance test, then you’ll probably dismiss this news as a piece of fiction. Well, looks like in Delhi University fiction is the truth.
On July 25th the list of candidates selected for the interview and its schedule for PhD admission was declared on Delhi University’s official website. In the list, the minimum qualifying marks for all categories are mentioned, wherein for ST and SC category the minimum marks were said to bezero.
According to the Department of Mathematics website the selection criterion for PhD is such that , the candidates without without any external fellowship will be called for an interview based on the entrance test and the merit list of selected candidates will be prepared on the basis of performance in the interview. However the setting of zero marks as the minimum qualifying marks for sitting in the interview raises questions of the relevance of the written exam.
Talking to DU Beat, on the condition of anonymity, a high ranking official belonging to the Department Mathematics clarified that the entrance test is not qualifying test and there isn’t any guideline set by the university to dictate the minimum eligibility marks for the entrance. He also added that since the department doesn’t get enough SC/ST applicants, and as per the University rules the reserved seats need to be filled by reserved category students only, it is only wise to call all those who gave the entrance test. He also asserted the need for official guidelines to set the minimum eligibility criterion based on entrance exam because the department on its own can’t fudge with the rules. He also informed that earlier the department had even admitted students in certain reserved categories with negative marks.
Delhi University has decided to conduct online entrance test for Masters and Research programmes like M.Phil and PhD. Several of its undergraduate courses for which entrance was conducted across different cities of the country will also be going online from the commencing academic year. This will delay the regular entrance schedule normally followed by the university by nearly a month. The registration for entrances which earlier started in the first part of April will now start in May. “There is a delay in the application process, but admissions will be conducted on time as online tests can be completed in three to four days. The application process can be announced in the first week of May,” said a senior official at the examination branch.
The entrance test for Master’s , research programmes and selected UG programmes like BEd, Law, B.A(Hons.), Business Economics, Bachelor of Business Studies and Bachelor of Financial and Investment Analysis will be held in nearly 18 centres across the country. For every 10,000 applicants there will be one facilitation centre. As per the plans the online tests will consist of multiple choice questions, with a duration of two hours. Every day the tests will be conducted in three shifts between 8AM and 6PM.
The responsibility for conducting this entrance test will be outsourced to a third party, which will facilitate the process in cities across India for which the university has already floated a tender this Wednesday. The organisation which bags the tender will also have to create facilitation centres to familiarise the candidates with the computer-based tests, which are expected to function from at least one month in advance.
Earlier this month, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Delhi University Student’s Union (DUSU) protested against the online based entrance system.
Refusal of admissions to Ph.D. program in Modern Indian Languages (MIL) and Literary Studies Department to over 50 Delhi University students by the university has lead to outrage and animosity among them. The preeminent problem here is that the university did not declare the post-graduate results at the apt time that is in May. The applicants are not guilty but the university is at pitfall. Also, the applicants from other departments who qualified their entrance exams and were wait-listed were called for Viva after two days but were denied consequently.
“There are limited seats for every course and in case the university, being the Central University of the country, announces its results late then it is apparent injustice to the candidates. It is none less than a crime being held. Why should the students suffer when the university is inefficient”, said Harish Khanna, Vice-President of DUTA.
Applicants were being called for entrance examination held on July 22, followed by the Viva on 24th July for those who qualified the entrance exam. But the most opaque and cloudy concern was that it was the only during the admission process that it was revealed that the students will not be given admissions unless they had their results. An applicant said, “This partial decision by the authorities regarding our admissions to the Ph.D. programme is really unjust. How can a university conclude over a matter when it is the one which is at fault?”
75 marks are awarded for the entrance exam, 25 for the Viva, 5 marks for NET- qualification and 20 marks on the M.A. and M.Phil. results, thus the students who have their results awaited are not eligible. “When the case is so, the University is liable to coordinate and should extend the deadline for admissions or provide provisional admissions to the short-listed students. It is like violation of the Right to Education”, added Harish Khanna.
