Outstation Delhi University aspirants may not have to visit the national capital to write entrance examinations for postgraduate courses with the university planning to come up with five centres outside Delhi.
The Vice Chancellor has constituted an 18-member standing committee, comprising deans of various faculties, which is deliberating upon the proposal of introducing five examination centres.
With the committee yet to come up with final recommendations, the registration process for admissions to 66 postgraduate courses has also been delayed.
"The committee is considering setting up of five centres for conducting entrance examinations, however, the modalities need to worked out. The centres are likely to come up in major cities including metros or near those towns from where the university receives major chunk of applications," a committee member said.
"The feasibility of the new experiment needs to be worked out before going ahead with the same. We are also working on making the admission process more centralised unlike previous years when departments were responsible for conducting their own entrances and set question papers for the same," the member added.
Once the committee submits its recommendation the Vice Chancellor will take a final call in this regard and the schedule for the admissions will be announced.
There will be a common application form for centralised registration for the applicants. Apart from those faculties and departments offering interdisciplinary or professional courses, all other departments reserves 50 per cent of the total seats in each programme for direct admission for students who has completed their undergraduate from DU.
Remaining 50 per cent seats are filled by entrance exams to be followed by interview (to be decided by individual departments).
The candidates should have a bachelor's degree in the course for which they are applying and also must have scored the minimum percentage of marks required by the programme.
For admission to a postgraduate programme in DU, there is no minimum age bar except for professional courses under regulatory authorities like Medical Council of India or Bar Council of India.
Around 8,000 students are to be enrolled for the 2016-17 academic session.
While DU, taking cognizance of the problems faced by the
aspirants, came up with 24 centres to assist admission seekers with limited resources, they, by and large, remain unaware of these centres.
Gurleen Kaur, who came looking for ABVP helpdesk, said she is unaware of DU centres for admission help.
"Where are these centres? I don't know. These (ABVP) people are also going to recommend to me which colleges should I apply and will also help me calculate my percentage. I think I will get my registration done by them," she added.
A volunteer at a helpdesk explained that people are not aware of DU centres as those were notified on their website on June 4, days after registration process started.
"A lot of students, who are coming to us, are from poor background or who do not have proper access to internet, how are they going to anticipate opening of such centres when they have been notified so late that too on university website?" he said.
