DU colleges look at non-teaching staff for admission process

Most Delhi University colleges have decided to take the help of their non-teaching staff to conduct the admission process this year which starts from June 30.

Most Delhi University colleges have decided to take the help of their non-teaching staff to conduct the admission process this year which starts from June 30. The Delhi University Teachers’ Association had earlier decided to boycott the admission process in continuation of their protest against a University Grants Commission (UGC) guideline that suggested changes to the Academic Performance Indicator (API) — the point system which determines promotion of teachers.

The Delhi University teachers have been on strike since May 24 to protest against a University Grants Commission (UGC) guideline. (Saumya Khandelwal/HT file Photo)

The admission to 54,000 seats in 63 colleges of Delhi University will begin from June 30 after the first cutoff is declared.

Teachers are responsible for the verification of student documents. Some teachers are also part of the admission committee in each college which decides on the cutoff. They are also part of various committees like equal opportunity cell, discipline committee, and grievance committees as mandated by the university.

Anula Maurya, principal, Kalindi College said she was banking on the non-teaching staff of the college.

“If teachers do not join the admission process then we will utilize the non-teaching staff for conducting admissions,” said Maurya.

Some principals said that this was not the first time teachers had called a strike during the time of admission. In 2011-2012, when the semester system had started, a similar thing had happened.

“Earlier too admissions were conducted with the help of non-teaching staff and same thing will be done this time also,” said SP Aggarwal, principal Ramanujan College.

The admission process this year is scheduled to begin on Thursday, with some principals calling for a meeting on the issue on Wednesday.

“We will conduct the admission process without the teachers. There are some teachers who will help us and we have our administrative staff to conduct the admissions smoothly,” said Gyantosh Kumar Jha, principal, Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College.

The protesting DUTA teachers had earlier held a meeting and decided to evaluate the answer sheets of final-year students. They, however, said that they will boycott the upcoming admission process for new admissions.

Sources said that the staff association of around 35 colleges had already lent their support to the striking DUTA teachers and said they would not take part in the admission process as well.

“I had called the admission committee meeting today (Tuesday), but none of the teachers attended it. We wanted to decide our cutoffs today, but could not. It is going to be really tough to conduct admissions without these teachers,” said Vijay K Sharma, principal of Ram Lal Anand College.