High cut-offs result in low admission figures at DU

Hindu College’s sky-high cut-offs might fall drastically, according to the first day admission figures, which saw only five of the 62 seats for Economics (Honours), eight of the 39 available seats for B.Com. (Honours) and only six seats for History (Honours) being filled. While both Economics (Honours) and B.Com. (Honours) had cut-offs with an upper limit of 99.25 per cent, History (Honours) had 99 per cent.

“Although we have admitted 152 students across all courses, the cut-offs might actually drop to a more realistic level,” said Hindu College Principal Dr. Pradyum Kumar, adding that the initial cut-offs were kept high intentionally to avoid over-admission, a problem the college faced last year.

On the other hand, Shri Ram College of Commerce had the highest admission figure of up to 223 for its B.Com. (Honours) course. “Of these, 179 belong to the general category, and for B.A. Economics (Honours) we have admitted up to 55 students of which 39 are from the general category, with quota seats making up the rest,” said SRCC College Principal Dr. P.C. Jain, adding that the college was forced to keep its admission counters open as students had trouble getting bank drafts to pay their fees and hence kept getting late. The college does not usually come out with a second cut-off list as its seats are filled within the first list itself.

Hans Raj College also recorded one of the highest admission figures, with total admissions of 195 students across all its streams. “Of these, 90 are from the Humanities stream, 55 from Science and 50 from the Commerce stream,” said Hans Raj College Principal Dr. V. K. Kawatra. The college, along with some others, insisted on original Class XII mark-sheets and refused to admit students who did not have them. As a result, the University received several complaints from students coming from the Haryana and Madhya Pradesh Boards who met the cut-offs but were turned away without admission.

Ramjas College admitted only 16 students though a total of 137 students came for admissions. “An affidavit stating that ragging or sexual harassment will entail cancellation of admission has to be submitted. We had appointed a person to take care of these affidavits but he came only at 1.30 p.m. and the admission counter had to close at 1.p.m but we were forced to keep it open,” said Ramjas College Principal Rajendra Prasad, adding that they were going to work overtime to admit all students meeting the cut-offs.

Ramjas College, still reeling from the scandalous mark-sheet scam that hit the headlines late last year, is being very careful this year. “We have appointed four forensic experts to look into each and every mark-sheet before admission. I will not be putting my signature on anything unless approved by these experts,” said Dr. Prasad, adding that the experts were already on duty since the admission process began at 9 a.m. and would continue till every last student was admitted.

Kirori Mal College did not have a system in place to accept payment of fees and many students who had gone to the college complained that they could not complete their admissions. “They are telling us that we can submit our documents and do the paper work, but the payment of fees that seals the deal will be done later. I preferred not to do anything and decided to look elsewhere with my 92 per cent,” said Tanya.