In a first, “minority colleges” under the Delhi University, like St Stephen’s College and Jesus & Mary College are likely to be a part of the centralised registration process for the current academic session, though such colleges have been resisting the centralisation process for a long time. However, these colleges will follow an independent procedure for admissions.
In fact, the online admission process that was initially scheduled to start on 28 May for admission on cut-off basis for 54,000 seats will begin on 1 June because of the new changes that will be made to the university’s admission software for centralised registrations.
While the university is busy with the software trials, students and parents applying for the current academic session were in a Catch-22 situation about where and whom to seek help from.
The issue of minority colleges following a separate admission procedure was discussed in the Academic Council’s meeting last Wednesday. A member of the Council who attended the meeting said, “The High Court allows minority colleges to exercise their own procedure for admissions, but since the university wanted to establish a centralised system, there was some pressure on the minority colleges to come on board. Minority colleges had been resisting the centralisation process from the beginning because it will reduce their autonomy. But now with some flexibility, the issue seems to have been resolved.”
Explaining the centralisation process, Dr R.N. Dubey, Associate Professor, Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, said, “Centralisation of the registration process and the admission process are two separate things. Students first have to register for admission to various courses in different colleges. Then the admissions begins once the cut-off is out. Centralisation of the registration process means that students can fill one university form for various colleges they want to apply to. There will be some colleges who will also provide their own admission forms, but the benefit of centralisation would be that every student’s form will carry one university number. So, if a student fills the university form and the separate college’s form, the software will sync both, providing a single application number.”
The admission process to colleges like St Stephen’s College and Jesus & Mary College also consists of entrance examinations and personal interviews.
Among other changes, an online centralised system for admission through ECA (extra curricular activities) and sports quota has also been introduced by the Academic Council for this year’s admission process
This year, students will fill the centralised optical mark registration (OMR) form, apart from applying to colleges of their choice. The university will conduct trials for one sport in one college under the sports quota, eliminating the need to run around to attend different trials in different colleges.
On the other hand, several new courses that were to be introduced starting this academic session still remain stuck due to a financial logjam, according to a source in the UGC. These would have, otherwise, added 2,000-2,500 more seats.