Entrance Examinations for Admissions to Delhi University? DU set for reforms in Admission Process
If recommendations and suggestions have to be considered, soon students would be writing a common entrance test, not unlike CAT for admission to Delhi University colleges. Delhi University continues to be a premium university in the country. With cut off percentage for some courses reaching as high as 99 percent, there has been a strong chorus within the administrative section to look at the admission process and bring in some reforms. Considering the many angles, Delhi University or DU as famously called is set for a series of reforms in the Admission Process. These reforms and recommendations might be announced before the 2017-18 admissions this June, however, many might not be implemented well before next year’s admission cycle.
An Admission Committee is deliberating on the process and would be giving out recommendations soon. The many recommendations being considered include an common entrance exam like CAT, early admission calendar as well as an entrance cum merit admissions criteria. Along with this, for the admission year 2017- 18, DU is planning to advance the applications by a month (for under-graduate courses). Mr. Yogesh Tyagi, Vice Chancellor, DU suggested that he applications for DU would be out in April 2017 this year. These would be for all the courses, including the four professional courses offered by DU. The reason to prepone the application process, as cited by Mr. Tyagi is to provide additional time to applicants.
The recommendations, at this point in time, however, are only recommendations and there continues to be a debate. University officials are still divided in the decision regarding the reforms. A few academicians believe that early applications would only benefit a small group of students. According to some, it would be beneficial to students with gap year or the ones seeking transfer from other institutes. However, for most of the applicants – students who have fresh passed out of class 12, the early applications in April is not seen as a big differentiate.
While many of these reforms might be implemented sooner than later, it can be safely said that the entrance examination might not be implemented this session. As per senior DU official, planning an entrance examination is at the moment not possible logistically. With a lower percentage cut off for these examinations and students from 26 boards applying to DU, the university can expect about 15 lakh applications. At present, as per the official, DU was not capable of assessing the applications in that number.
As we wait for the final recommendations, the Vice Chancellor has said that these recommendations would not be hastily implemented. He reassured that all these suggestions would be put to a debate with the teachers and the students as well as people outside the DU to get a third party perspective. The fact that admission process is just round the corner, further suggests that there might be a delay in implementation of most of the recommendations. The final approval, however, would be of the Academic Council.
