Admissions postponed, students face uncertain future
The row over the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) has left the University of Delhi stuck in limbo with massive confusion arising in all wings of the institution. While colleges have not received any intimation from the university so far, the Principals’ Association of the university held a meeting on Monday and decided to defer the admission process that was to begin on Tuesday.
This is the first time that such a situation has arisen in the university. Delhi University has always been known for sticking to timelines and not delaying its admission procedure. However, this year uncertainty looms over the admissions. Students are not even sure which course they would be admitted under, putting aside the anxiety regarding when the cut-off lists will be released.
Principals of 36 colleges of the university held a meeting on Monday to deliberate on the issue. In the meeting, they unanimously resolved that unless unambiguous guidelines are issued, the admission process will be deferred. They said that they needed time to release cut-off lists after the sudden revocation of the FYUP.
Principal of Hindu College Pradumn Kumar said: “Due to the short notice of the meeting, only 36 principals turned up on Monday and we all unanimously decided that the cut-offs need to be delayed. All other colleges have agreed as well. We have to follow the UGC’s instructions otherwise they may take away our grant and we can’t even go ahead without instructions from the university. Thus, in this confusing state, it is better that we wait for the university to give us instructions and then release cut-offs.”
The main contention of the principals is the reallocation of seats which may take place with the sudden rollback of FYUP. Principal of Ram lal Anand College Vijay K Sharma said: “There are conflicting expectations from us. If the courses, which were scrapped with FYUP, are reintroduced, then there will be a reallocation of seats. We need time to solve that. Thus, all colleges will wait for the university’s directive to release cut-offs.”
Principals are hopeful that in two to three days, there will be some communication from the university.“The university should be able to finalise something in the coming days. The moment we hear from them, we will take out the cut-off lists. Even if it is a delay of three days, we should manage completing admissions on time as we had made a schedule ahead of time this year,” said Kumar.