DU admission process to get delayed again this year due to Covid-19

Officials said that the university will wait for majority of the education boards in the country to complete their Class 12 exams before starting the admission process.

Admissions to colleges in Delhi University are likely to be delayed by a few months due to the second Covid-19 wave raging across the country, officials involved in the process said on Tuesday.

Last year, registrations began in June. Amal KS/HT archive

Officials said that the university will wait for majority of the education boards in the country to complete their Class 12 exams before starting the admission process. Last year, the registration process began in June, and the first cut-off was announced in October, due to the lockdown.

The academic session, which normally begins in DU in July, began in November last year.

Officials said the admission process is likely to get delayed again this year with the Covid cases rising across the country. “DU is the biggest central university in the country and students from all over the country apply here. The university is keeping a close eye on how different state boards and national education boards are planning to conduct Class 12 exams. In some states, such as Maharashtra, the state education board has postponed Class 12 board exams. We cannot exclude students from Maharashtra by deciding early admission dates. So, it is sure that the process will get delayed like last year,” said Rajeev Gupta, chairperson of DU’s admission panel.

Acting vice-chancellor PC Joshi said the admission timeline is dependent on how the state and national education boards conduct their Class 12 examinations.

“We have to take care of all the boards. There is still uncertainty about the CBSE exams. So, again it’s likely that the admission process will get delayed…,” he said.

The Maharashtra government on Monday postponed their Class 10 and 12 board exams. There have been similar demands in other states as well in view of the spike in cases.

HT reported in February that DU was planning to adopt Central Universities Common Entrance Test (CUCET) from this year for admission to various undergraduate courses. Under the new system, the test score and Class 12 marks will be considered for admission to undergraduate courses.

Joshi, who is a member of a committee constituted by the Union ministry of education to recommend modalities for the CUCET, said the university is still waiting for the Centre to notify CUCET. “We are ready to implement CUCET from this year. The university has decided to give 50-50 weightage to both CUCET and Class 12 scores,” he said.

DU is also likely to skip to sports and extracurricular activity trials for admissions on 5% supernumerary seats reserved for these categories in each course.