DU to hold entrance for UG courses from 2022; Teachers, Students term it discriminatory

Delhi University has been admitting students for over 60,000 UG seats based on class 12 marks

The University of Delhi announced that the admission for all undergraduate courses from the next academic session will be done through Central University Common Entrance Test (CUCET). However, the announcement has not gone down well in some sections of the academic and student community.

On December 20, Delhi University issued a notification announcing CUCET from the academic session 2022-23. As per the notification, the Executive Council of the University of Delhi at its meeting held on December 17, resolved that the admissions for the Academic Session 2022-2023 onwards in all Under-Graduate (UG) Courses of the University of Delhi shall be made through CUCET) or Delhi University Common Entrance Test (DUCET).

The university will release further details of the CUCET / DUCET in due course of time.

Till now, the admissions to the majority of the more than 60,000 UG seats from various courses in Delhi University was carried out through the merit-based process considering the marks scored by students in their 12th board examination.

One of the associations of DU teachers, the Democratic Teachers Federation (DTF) has termed it as a wrong move. It stated in a statement: “Today's notification shows clearly that the move towards admission through entrance test is coming as part of NEP rather than our own organic need. The claims that entrance exams are inclusive are completely wrong. The recent judgment of Madras High Court in regard to NEET is an eye-opener.”

With the fixed number of seats to be offered, there is no new opportunity created for students, DTF stated. “CUCET will mean further dilution of core classes XI and XII, rise in the coaching market, less flexibility for students in shifting from one stream to another and exclusion of students from disadvantageous backgrounds,” it said.

Abha Dev Habib, Secretary, DTF said: “While the Central Govt and universities have failed to respond to the current crisis in education sector owing to COVID and continuous closures of educational institutions, it is extremely worrisome that a new experiment is being done on these batches of school students.”

SFI DU protests against entrance exam

Student's Federation of India (SFI) Delhi University has also protested against the decision of the university to conduct an entrance examination which will be replacing the current merit-based admission from the next academic year.

The admissions to the majority of the more than 60,000 UG seats from various courses in Delhi University was carried out through the merit-based process considering the marks scored by students in their 12th board examination.

SFI has stated that the effort to replace the merit-based process with the entrance is a disadvantage to the students coming from marginalised communities and state boards.

“The experience we have with entrance examinations including NEET has clearly shown that the process is discriminatory. This will lead to the creation and strengthening of entrance coaching centres - chains which will make things more difficult for the students who cannot access them due to their social and economical position,” SFI stated.

They have alleged that students will not be able to afford coaching due to the high fees and also since students across the country, particularly from rural areas will be having difficulty in accessing these centres from their places. SFI alleges: “This will make the examination discriminatory to the students from rural areas, women students and students from socially and economically marginalised communities.”

‘CBSE students dominate DU admissions’

The recent admission details from DU also shows that nearly 90 percent of the students taking admission are from the CBSE board. The total number of students from all state boards in the country combined is around 10%.

The students association is worried that if the entrance examination is implemented, this will further worsen the situation for state board students.

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