No penalty for changing streams; sports, ECA trials back at Delhi University

Those who become eligible based on their CUET scores will be able to choose courses and colleges according to their preferences during the counselling process, Singh said at a media briefing

Students aspiring to study at the Delhi University from the 2022-23 academic session will have to take the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh said on Tuesday while releasing the university’s admission policy.

Merit will be calculated on the basis of the combination of only those subjects a candidate chooses in CUET. (Amal KS/HT Archive)

Those who become eligible based on their CUET scores will be able to choose courses and colleges according to their preferences during the counselling process, Singh said at a media briefing.

Merit will be calculated on the basis of the combination of only those subjects a candidate chooses in CUET, and students will face no disadvantage if they want to change subjects after their Class 12 board exams, the vice-chancellor said.

The decision to base admissions solely on CUET scores is in line with guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission, the country’s higher education regulator. The university will not give any weightage to Class 12 board exam marks; students only need to pass to qualify.

Brushing aside concerns that CUET will lead to a dilution of board exams, Singh said, “If students don’t study well in Class 12, they will not be able to do well in CUET either. The entrance will be based on the Class 12 syllabus and NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) books. There is a correlation between the performance in both (Class 12 board exams and CUET).”

Till last year, admission to undergraduate courses at the Delhi University was done on the basis of cutoffs premised on Class 12 board exam scores. All applicants who met the cut-off criteria for a particular course were eligible for admission. Now aspirants will have to appear for a computer-based CUET, which will be conducted by the National Testing Agency.

It will be mandatory for candidates to appear in at least one language in CUET to become eligible for admission, Singh said. CUET offers of 13 languages in the first part and 20 languages in the second part. Students will have to opt for at least one language for admission to DU.

The second section of the CUET consists of 27 domain specific topics, while the third part will be based on general knowledge, which will be for admission to BA programmes only. For admission to most programmes, a candidate will have choose at least three subjects from the 27 domain specific topics.

For admission to most science undergraduate programmes, merit will be calculated on the basis of physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology scores.

Outlining the counselling process, Singh said students will have to first sign up for CUET registration through the NTA, which starts on Wednesday (April 6), and appear for the test.

Once the test results are declared, the university will seek applications for counselling.

“E- counselling will take place,” Singh said. “Students will be asked to list their preferred course and college, and enter their CUET score as per the programme specific eligibility. Depending on the CUET score, they’ll get the colleges of their choice.”

The university will admit 30% additional students to all courses after the first round of counselling to make up for drop outs or withdrawals, he said. “When the vacancy for the second round is declared, the number of available seats will be calculated after deducting the 30% seats,” Singh explained.

In a situation where multiple students end up getting similar CUET scores, the university will use a tiebreaker formula to allocate colleges, he said. Details of the tiebreaker formula are being worked out by the varsity.

While the university had skipped the sports and extracurricular activities (ECA) trials amid the Covid-19 pandemic in the past two years, admissions this year under the two quotas will take place on the basis of a combined score of CUET and trials.

“For sports, proper trials will be held this year, unless the Covid situation creates a problem. We will be allocating 75% weightage to performance in trials, awards and certificates, whereas 25% weightage will be given to CUET score,” the vice-chancellor said. “Similarly, for ECA, 75% weightage will be given to trial performance and 25% to CUET score.”

For admission to minority colleges, 50% of the seats will be reserved for minority candidates, as is the current practice. For reserved seats, 85% weightage will be given to the CUET score and the remaining 15% will be decided by the colleges. Admission to the 50% non-reserved seats will be purely on the basis of CUET scores.

“Admission to minority colleges will be conducted in two ways. These colleges have 50% open seats and 50% minority seats. For the open seats, admission will be done through the common entrance test, just as it’s done for all other colleges,” Singh said. “For minority seats, based on the request from colleges, 85% weightage will be given to CUET score, while 15% weightage can be allocated to interview or any other mechanism that the colleges choose.”

Although admission to all undergraduate programmes will be done through CUET this year, admission to the School of Open Learning and National Collegiate Women’s Education Board will be carried out as before.

Admission to postgraduate courses will be done through the Delhi University Entrance Test, as per the current practice. Candidates will be able to register on the website dedicated to such registrations from April 6 to May 15.