Its admission time and Delhi University is in news all over again. Like other years, this time too it’s about high cut-off rate for admission to the UG programmes.
At the outset, let it be clear that this noise largely pertains to admissions under the general category which amount to less than 50 per cent of the seats on the offer as it also includes candidates from economically weaker sections.
Tinge to the current controversy has been added with a large number of students from the southern states, Kerala particularly, arriving with a very high percentage of marks, 100 per cent in many cases, and occupying these premium seats.
There indeed is a difference in curriculum and scheme of marking between the state school examination boards and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
With this difference, when the merit in the senior secondary school examination becomes the sole criterion for admission, there would be some gaining unfairly and some losing unfairly.
In his own understanding a Delhi University teacher-activist has called this scenario something as ‘Marks Jihad’ without really appreciating that the crisis is of university’s own making and not Kerala board’s doing.
Delhi University probably remains the only Central University in the country which is still to shift to admission through an entrance examination.
All its counterparts in the national capital, including Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Jamia Millia Islamia and Guru Govind Singh Indra Prastha University (GGSIPU) follow a system of entrance examination.
The only other university in the national capital following the merit cut-off criterion is the state-run Ambedkar University of Delhi (AUD).
However, AUD is not beset with the same problem as DU as 85 per cent seats in AUD are reserved for students passing out from the schools of the national capital. So, a great level of parity is achieved as 85 per cent students are admitted on the basis of marks obtained in CBSE conducted examination.
Though the new Vice Chancellor Professor Yogesh Singh, in his first interaction with media has feigned ignorance but in the same vein he has said that the reforms were on the way.
Asked by media persons on what he felt about the high cut-off marks for admission at DU, Singh said, “I want to understand that first. In DTU, we have mostly admitted students on the basis of JEE. So, I need to understand this system first. But if some reforms are required, the Deans and HoDs will be the right people to advise me. I can say, we are open to everything.”
Professor Yogesh Singh has been among the founding faculty members of GGSIPU which follows a central entrance examination for the courses other than law and engineering. In the case of other two, performance in the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for later is taken into account through the university counselling system.
An almost similar model is followed at the Delhi Technological University (DTU), where Professor Singh was serving as Vice-Chancellor before joining the Delhi University.
When he says, “we are open to everything,” it can be safely presumed that he is looking at the reforms.
Admission through entrance examination would also help restore sanity in the admission under the other backward classes category, where a large number of students take admission just for the sake of contesting Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections and then leave. A DU study in this regard was done a few years ago.
Having been part of an efficient entrance examination system both at the Guru Govind Singh Indra Prastha University and Delhi Technological University, Professor Singh has the experience and exposure to helm the long-awaited reforms. The earlier the reforms are done, the better it is for DU.
Sidharth Mishra
Author and president, Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice