Starting this year, students who wish to apply to Delhi University under the Extra Curricular Activities (ECA) category should not have scored less than 15 per cent from the college cut-off.
For example, if the cut-off is 90 per cent for a particular subject, the ECA applicant should have secured at least 75 per cent to be eligible to apply under the category.
This is the first time that such a limit has been set on ECA admissions. The decision was taken during a meeting of the 24-member admissions committee on Monday.
The committee also decided to make the registration process for ECA admissions centralised and declaration of the merit list on the University website. The trials, however, will be conducted by colleges individually. Till last year, students had to apply to individual colleges.
Confirming this, admission committee member R. N. Dubey said: “The committee has decided to make the registration process for ECA admissions centralised. All applicants will have to register on the DU website and then choose the college they wish to apply to. However, trials will be conducted by individual colleges. The colleges will have to declare their merit list on the University website.”
Trials and certificate
Admissions under both the sports and ECA categories are given on the basis of trials and certificates. This year, DU has decided to allot more than 50 per cent marks to trials in both categories. While 75 per cent marks will be allotted to ECA trials and 25 per cent to certificates, the committee is yet to come to a consensus on the exact leverage of marks under the sports category.
ECA category has always been considered as “grey area” in the admission process by University teachers. A number of teachers had raised the issue with DU authorities and requested them to making the process more transparent.
An Associate Professor at Ramjas College who had raised the issue said: “Teachers have always been concerned about the possible ways of backdoor entry to students through ECA category, since a huge weightage was given to certificates so far. During admissions, we have seen some students who have excellent certificates but prove to be a failure when it comes to trials. Many students were also found in possession of fake certificates just to get admission. Also, since DU had no involvement in the process so far, the judges could be easily influenced during trials. All these things in the ECA admission process needed to be sorted.”
Five per cent seats available for students under the ECA and sports categories in each course in each college. While most top DU colleges still continue with ECA admissions, Hindu College and St. Stephen’s have stopped giving admission under the category.
