It could be the new four-year course as officials proclaim or it could be the cheaper prices but no one can precisely point out the reason why the first week of admissions at Delhi University has yielded more sales of application forms than the entire admission season last year.
“This year, we have so far distributed around 2,60,800 forms, of which 1,32,458 forms were sold physically and 1,28,342 have been downloaded online. Payments have been made for 61,051 online,” Dean Students’ Welfare J. M. Khurana said, adding that they had slashed the price of online forms by half and had made the forms free this year for the SC/ST and the PWD students.
On the first day of admissions on Wednesday last week, the university had sold 50,245 forms, which itself was a sharp increase from the 48,000 forms sold on the first day last year. “This indicates the success of the new four-year course,” many of the university officials had declared after seeing the crowds milling around North Campus. Since then, the North Campus has continued to resemble a pickle jar with a wave of humanity descending on the campus everyday and Wednesday, a week after mission admission began, was no different with the unpleasant weather no deterrent to the thousands of parents and students who continued to troop in.
“I like the concept of the four-year course, they say that we will get more practical exposure and it will be easier to find jobs in the new format,” said Poornima, a B.Com aspirant who had come along with her friend who was to attend the job fair being hosted by the Delhi University Students’ Union where an attendance of 4,000 students was recorded: another explanation for the rush.
The MA courses, School of Open Learning forms and the Non-Collegiate Women’s Education Board continued to attract huge crowds. “I have applied for the university’s regular courses online, but since my marks are low I have decided to apply for SOL and NCWEB just as abundant caution,” said Apsar, another B. Com. aspirant.
Many people there had already filed online applications and had come again to submit the forms “in person.” There were the usual reasons for not believing in anything that was not in paper form given by people who were questioned as to why they braved the heat when they could have applied online in air-conditioned comfort.
Out-of-towners also added to the crowds along with the students who came to collect ECA and sports forms. “I have a district level certificate for yoga and judo, so I thought I will collect the sports forms from all the colleges,” said Sahil from Rohtak, who lost his way a few times and ended up in the same colleges again. “I first went to Shri Ram College of Commerce…they told me there is no judo or yoga, but I bought a form anyway after asking for directions to Ramjas. However somebody gave me the wrong direction and I ended up in SRCC again,” he added.
Many came after closing time at 1 p.m. and were calmly told to come again. “I thought the counters opened at 1 p.m.,” said Gayathri, who had come all the way from Ghaziabad with her mother in tow. A total of 8,127 forms were sold on Wednesday.
