DU reconsiders its decision to skip ECA admissions, set to start registration under the category

New Delhi: Delhi University (DU), which had earlier planned to skip admissions under the extracurricular activities (ECA) quota this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic,

New Delhi: Delhi University (DU), which had earlier planned to skip admissions under the extracurricular activities (ECA) quota this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has reconsidered its decision and is set to start registrations in the category.

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Just like the sports category, ECA admissions will be done on the basis of merit and participation certificates this year, without any trial.

The move comes after some students, teachers and artists objected to the university’s decision to skip admissions under all other ECA disciplines, except for National Cadet Corps (NCC) and National Service Scheme (NSS), for the academic session 2020-21.

The university had on June 10 said admissions under other ECA categories were not feasible without trials since there is no recognised body to issue certificates for the activities, unlike in sports.

Later on July 18, the admission committee accepted the recommendations and detailed guidelines of the marking scheme issued by the sub-committee constituted for sports, ECA and performance-based admissions, according to minutes of the meeting.

The minutes were on Monday approved by the standing committee of the university’s academic council — DU’s highest academic body.

Arun Attree, a member of the standing committee, said, “The recommendations of the sub-committee were approved by the standing committee on Monday. The committee has decided to take admissions solely on the basis of certificates. I registered my dissent, saying there is no way of authenticating the credibility of ECA certificates unlike sports,” he said.

Dean of admission Shobha Bagai said, “Apprehensions are still there about the authenticity of ECA certificates. Offline and offline trials are not possible. But we had no other option but to approve the sub-committee’s recommendations.”

In its suggestions, the sub-committee said, “For undergraduate admissions based on ECA, the committee suggested the trial’s marks should be clubbed with the certificate marks. The applicant is required to upload self-attested pdfs of his/her ECA certificates of merit/participation (maximum five certificates). The certificates uploaded by the applicant shall be scrutinised and evaluated out of a maximum of 100 marks.”

“Merit or participation ECA certificate of preceding three years will be considered from 01 May 2017 to 30 April 2020. The marks under ECA category will be awarded based on the sum of the total marks awarded in the three best certificates uploaded by the candidate,” read the sub-committee’s suggestions, a copy of which is with HT.

The sub-committee has also suggested forensic verification of the certificates.

There are 14 recognised activities under ECA — creative writing, dance, debate, fine arts, music, music instrumental (such as tabla, harmonium, sitar, dholak, drums, guitar and sarod), theatre, NCC, NSS and yoga, among others.

Several faculty members objected to the decision to give admissions on the basis of certificates in the ECA quota. A group of teachers and members of the Indian National Teachers Congress on Monday sent a memorandum to DU vice-chancellor Yogesh Tyagi, saying, “The university must ensure a free-and-fair process to conduct the ECA admissions. It should not become a back-door entry for admissions in top colleges.”

Despite several attempts, vice-chancellor Tyagi did not respond to calls and texts for a comment.