The Delhi University has received over 29,000 applications from aspirants under its second cutoff list, of which 2,103 aspirants have paid the fee and 2,593 approvals were accorded by principals by Monday evening, even as colleges remained concerned about over-admissions to several courses due to the DU’s policy of granting admissions to all students who meet the published cutoff percentage.
Chandrachur Singh, who teaches political science at Hindu College, which admitted nearly twice its sanctioned strength of around 930 seats, said, “The university needs to come up with a system to create a level playing field for all students. Entrance examination will lead to another problem of only those with access to coaching centres getting admissions to DU. Premier institutions should put in place robust mechanisms to reward merit while taking into account the diversity quotient. The need is for a robust inclusive policy and, perhaps, an algorithm to best express the policy.”
The political science course at his college – which announced 100% cutoff this year – has admitted over 140 students under the first cutoff list, of which 130 have got the perfect score and all but one are from the Kerala state board.
“This has been happening for the past few years. Of the students admitted to my course last year, around 80% are from Kerala. In the current third-year batch, 60% of students are from that state. This only points towards the need for DU to bring in domain experts and revise its existing admission policies rewarding merit and promoting diversity,” he said.
Most colleges with 100% cutoffs – including Hansraj College, Shri Ram College of Arts and Commerce, Ramjas College, and Hindu College – have noted that they are receiving a large number of applications from Kerala state board graduates.
For instance, at SRCC, of the 134 students admitted in BCom (Honours) – which had 100% cutoff – 55 are from Kerala state board and 63 are from Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). “This is still a big number because most of these students have scored 100%. Now when admissions have started under second cutoff, fewer students have taken admission from the Kerala state board. This means most students from the board are getting 100% which is a dangerous precedent. The curriculum in the state is also different and it becomes difficult to bring these students on a par with other students,” said a teacher from college, requesting anonymity. The teacher added that this pattern is now being emulated by other state boards as well.
Several teachers and admissions conveners HT spoke to explained that a policy oversight has led to an increase in the number of students from the Kerala board this year.
“Unlike CBSE which gave weightage to marks obtained in classes 10 to 12, while compiling the Class 12 results, the Kerala state board mark-sheets contain marks from classes 11 and 12. The DU policy dictates that Class 12 scores are to be taken into account for admission. Most students from Kerala state board scored in the range of 90% for their Class 11 whereas, in Class 12, most of them have scored 100%. This has led to a flood of applications from those who cleared the Kerala state board,” said an admissions convener, asking not to be named.
