State there are too many students, too few colleges
With several colleges in the Delhi University having over-admitted students this year, student unions have found a cause to fight for this election season. Most of these unions are planning on posing the need for more colleges in the university as a crucial part of their manifestos. While building new colleges is a big task for the university, these unions are expected to campaign for the opening of more evening colleges as of now.
This year, some colleges admitted doubling the amount of students due to the mandate that they can’t deny admission to any student who meets the requisite cut-off. This resulted in over-admissions during the first and second cut-offs itself. While this was beyond the jurisdiction of college authorities, students feel the main reason is an increase in number of students who scored well and lack of colleges.
Rohit Chahal, national secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) said, “For the last 16 years, no new college has been set up by DU. The number of students eligible for admission has risen. This has resulted in colleges over-admitting students skewing the student-to-faculty ratio and compromising the quality of academia.”
With the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections around the corner, student unions have decided to up the ante for more colleges. “There is a need for new colleges in DU to be set up and we will raise this issue in our manifesto,” said Chahal.
The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), on the other hand, will raise the same issue while focussing primarily on infrastructure. Spokesperson Amrish Ranjan Pandey said, “While the strength of students being admitted in a college in general increased after the OBC quota kicked in, the
infrastructure of the colleges has not been improved yet. With the problem of over-admission, the quality of education is likely to suffer because there is not enough infrastructure to meet the growing demand. We will highlight this in our manifesto and demand the need for more science and computer labs and classrooms.”
The manifestos of the unions will be released a few weeks before elections — which are to be held on September 12. However, they have already prepared their rough draft on what issues need thrashing out. Other than this, the unions will also raise the issue of lack of hostels for students in the North Campus.