Soon after Delhi University announced the plan of conducting entrances for admission, introducing a weightage of 50-50 exam marks was announced. Basically, the marks of entrance exams and board exams will be divided into 50:50 ratio for undergraduate admissions next year.
At present, the university is taking students on the basis of the cut-off list which is prepared strictly on marks achieved by the students in board exams. The current system of cut-off-based admission puts students from boards with ' strict' marking policies at a disadvantage, according to Professor Yogesh Singh, the recently-appointed Vice-Chancellor of the university.
"We have many options for admission -- to continue with the existing system, the second could be normalization of marks of various boards, third could be an entrance test and the fourth could be giving 50 percent weightage to entrance test and 50 percent to (board) marks. Let the academic council and executive council take a call," Prof Singh told PTI in an interview.
This step has been taken due to controversies that happened throughout the year. At least six colleges have set 100 per cent cut-off for admissions. A DU professor also described 'marks jihad' as a greater number of students from Kerala were securing admissions.
A nine-member panel constituted by Prof Singh recommended DU to hold a common entrance test to ensure 'substantial objectivity' in the undergraduate admission process.
The committee was formed to examine the reasons for over and under admissions to undergraduate courses, study the board-wise distribution of admissions and suggest alternative strategies for optimal admissions, among others.
Students from the Kerala Board of Higher Secondary Education have secured the second-highest position in DU UG, while CBSE Board has the first highest, followed by other boards, including -- Board of School Education, Haryana, ICSE and Board of Secondary Education Rajasthan, the committee has found.
During the PTI interview, Prof Singh said he is not in favor of cut-off-based admissions. In such a system, students from boards that have a “lenient” marking system have an advantage over others.
"For instance, UP Board students are not getting admissions to Delhi University. Some boards are not lenient. Even students from Haryana Board and neighbouring states are not getting admission here, but we are getting a large number of students from Kerala, but not from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh," Prof Singh said.
"It is a good thing we are popular in Kerala, but we need to resolve this (the other board students not getting admission to DU)," the Vice-Chancellor said.
