Delhi University admission process may start in April this year
The admission committee is mulling measures to deal with ‘moderation’ in marks that takes place in many state boards, which would, in turn, help the colleges to set ‘realistic cutoffs’ and shorten the admission process.
The admission process to Delhi University (DU) may begin earlier than usual for the upcoming academic session as a senior university official said that registrations for admissions may begin as early as the first week of April. Until now, the registration of admissions usually begins around the last of week of May.
The university is working to make the process of admissions more streamlined and easier for the students, said MK Pandit, chairperson of the admission committee and the dean at the faculty of science.
The admission committee is mulling measures to deal with ‘moderation’ in marks that takes place in many state boards, which would, in turn, help the colleges to set ‘realistic cutoffs’ and shorten the admission process.
Pandit added that DU is also considering steps to make the process easier like computer-based online tests for PG admissions, forensic experts to check the veracity of certificates, and reinforcing the grievance redressal mechanism by fixing phone lines and deploying more volunteers at the University Information Centre.
The ministry of human resource development (MHRD) had last year issued advisories to all state and central boards, asking them to give up the practice of spiking marks in Class 10, and 12. However, school boards reportedly continue with a policy to grant marks for “difficult” or “ambiguous” questions in exam papers and offer a level playing field to all students in the evaluation process.
The 47-member admission committee, 33 of which met on Monday, has said it will ask all boards about such ‘moderation policies’ before setting cutoff guidelines.
“CBSE has said that it will not allow any moderation this year. We will ask the other boards if they are going to have moderation or spiking... so we may frame our guidelines (for cutoffs) based on that. Otherwise, it would be unfair to applicants (whose boards don’t moderate or spike marks),” said Pandit, adding that the panel’s efforts are to put students from all boards on an equal setting.
Pandit said the committee may have an orientation of sorts for principals of different colleges, as many colleges set “unrealistic cutoff,” and hence their seats remain vacant until the third or fourth cutoff lists. The admission committee was acting on feedback about the “prolonged admission process” at the university, with more than 10 cutoff lists commonplace most years.
“We are thinking we will have a kind of orientation prior to finalising the first, second and third cutoffs. We will bring the principals (of colleges) in one place and present to them the whole data, so they know where their college can stand in terms of cutoffs,” said Pandit.
While they are mulling over taking the entire admission and counselling process online, starting from the 2019-2020 academic year, admissions to all post-graduate and the entrance-based undergraduate courses will be done on the basis of computer-based online tests, starting this academic year.
