Among the many queues for various application forms, the longest and the most peculiar was the one for the Non-Collegiate Women’s Education Board (NCWEB). Longest because people thought it was the last date for submitting applications like other courses and peculiar because a lot of boys could be seen trying to submit applications to the all-girls institute.
If you are a woman living in this city and want a degree from Delhi University but do not have the time to sit through the drill required for a regular under-graduate or post-graduate course and also lack the inclination to go in for a correspondence course, then the Non-Collegiate Women’s Education Board (NCWEB) is the right option for you.
“The Board is only for girls from Delhi, we have regular classes at about 13 centres of the university spread across the city. Attendance is compulsory and classes are held from 9-30 a.m. to 3-30 p.m. on Sundays. We have a total of 50 teaching days, and hold continuous classes on the some of the college breaks,” said NCWEB director Arti Saxena, adding that centres in Jesus and Mary College and Syama Prasad Mookerjee College for Women held classes on Saturday instead of Sunday.
“We offer a B.A. (Programme) and a B. Com course, and we have post-graduate programmes in M.Sc. (Mathematics) and M.A. in several languages. Some of the classes are held in Arts Faculty and Hans Raj College. We have other colleges like Kalindi College and Lakshmi Bai College. The thing is that we make use of university’s available infrastructure,” she said.
NCWEB works well for working women, which counts a para-trooper in the Air Force and a television soap script writer among its other professional students, although there are strict rules against pursuing another full-time course anywhere else, although part time or correspondence courses are allowed.
There are currently around 12, 000 students enrolled in the Board which started off in 1944 with only three students. There is a separate admission procedure, removed from the university. They have common application forms, which will be sorted out manually to ascertain the demand for each course after which the cut-offs will be declared.
The first cut-off list will be out on June 25 and the second on July 6, with other lists to be out later on. The sale of applications ended on Tuesday, with the Board selling a total of 23, 000 applications. The admission procedure is very simple in keeping with the low fees and a degree from the Board is on an equal footing of any other degree from Delhi University.
