In a bid to discourage manual system of application for admissions in Delhi University, the administration has increased the price of application forms by Rs 50. The online application forms will, however, be available for Rs 100. Earlier, the forms were available at university centres at the same price but the latest move aims at encouraging online application system among students. The offline forms will now cost Rs 150 for general/OBC and Rs 70 for SC/ST students.
Sources in the university said a lot of unnecessary expenditure is incurred by the university through the offline method which is why they want to exterminate the method slowly. “There is a lot of human resource, paper and time being spent on this process. Eventually everything has to be collated and put online. So instead of wasting time in this process, it is better that everything is put online and centralised. This even saves children the trouble of running around in the heat,” sources said.
However, this move of the university hasn’t gone too well with students as the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) on Tuesday protested outside the Dean of Student Welfare (DSW) office demanding the pullback of this increment. According to them, a lot of students find it difficult to apply online. “There are problems regarding mode of payment or even access to Internet that a lot of students face. Many feel that it is easier to apply manually. Thus, increasing the fee has made it difficult for them as such students will still go for the offline method and invite heavier costs,” said a volunteer from NSUI.
Other than this, another demand was put forward by NSUI volunteers. They asked the DSW to make the Faculty of Arts an admission centre like the previous years as it is a known location and changing it would create confusion. This year the university has announced 18 admission centres of which five are in the North Campus. Officials, however, argued that the admission centres were conveniently located near metro stations and that this would cause no hassle to students.