First round of DU admissions over, colleges wary of glitches in online system

The first round online admissions to Delhi University colleges may have concluded, but the experience of a completely virtual admissions process has left colleges

The first round online admissions to Delhi University colleges may have concluded, but the experience of a completely virtual admissions process has left colleges cautious of subsequent cutoff lists and wary of technical glitches.

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Unlike previous years, when students had to visit colleges to secure admissions, this year, the entire process is online. While applications under first cutoff ended on Wednesday, students can pay the fee up to Friday.

Till Thursday evening, 29,746 applicants had paid their fee. Of the 59,730 applicants under the first cutoff, 10,978 applicants have secured admissions.

Several students, however, were alarmed by the “server error” message that popped up, due to which they were unable to pay the fee on Thursday evening.

Chitransh Srivastava, 18, a resident of Sewapuri village near Varanasi, had applied for BA Programme in Shivaji College on Monday. The option to pay the fee appeared on the dashboard on Thursday evening, but an error message popped up when he attempted payment. “I stay in a remote area and my parents do not have a debit card. We will have take the help of a neighbour or someone with a debit card to make the payment. But for that, we need to know the exact amount,” he said.

Even Delhi residents have complained of server errors. Prateek Chandera, a resident of east Delhi’s Mandawali, said he had applied to Deshbandhu College on Monday afternoon. “The payment link came on Wednesday afternoon. But I still haven’t been able to pay the fee due to server error. Friday is the last day to submit the fee and I am afraid of losing my seat due to the glitch,” he said.

Dean (admissions) Shobha Bagai said the university has formed a team to look into the problem. “Applicants can flag any error to the payment grievance helpline mentioned on DU website and their issues will be immediately resolved. We have a help desk manned by 10 persons for this. There was a minor payment server issue yesterday (Wednesday) due to heavy rain in Hyderabad but alternative arrangements were made,” she said.

While principals have welcomed the lack of rush on campuses, the three-tier admission process-- document verification by the teacher in-charge, then the college admission committee, followed by the principal’s approval -- has created a backlog of applications, leading to a delay in approving admissions.

Executive council member Rajesh Jha, who teaches at Rajdhani College, said, “Carrying out admissions under the first cutoff list is relatively less complex. In the subsequent lists, students would want to cancel their admission in one college and take admission in another and doing all that within a three-day window is usually more of a challenge.”

Former academic council member Pankaj Garg said, “The application forms should be processed within 24 hours by colleges. They should not be held on to for days because if applications are rejected at the last minute, the student loses out on the chance to apply to another college.” According to the rules formed by DU’s admissions branch, while students can apply to multiple colleges, they cannot do so simultaneously and will have to wait until their application is processed by the first college.”

Principals said while quick processing of applications is ideal, the reality is different. Manoj Khanna, principal of Ramjas College, said, “It was only while processing the applications of many students that we learnt that they had already taken admission in another college. This points to a technical fault somewhere.”

Despite the lag, his college has approved over 1,000 admissions under first cutoff, which is about 300 more than what the college did (under first cutoff) in 2019.

“Cancellations under the next cutoff won’t take much time. But the technical challenges will remain and they need to be addressed. Often, students from southern boards do not have their maximum and minimum marks printed on the front of the mark sheet which they upload on the portal. We have to call such students and ask them for the mark sheet and then calculate accordingly. All these take time,” he said.

Colleges are also required to fill the reason for rejecting a form, which further causes a delay.

Bagai explained, “The volume of applications is far more this year as students can apply from their homes. Students with aggregates far below the required cutoffs are also applying and since colleges have to process all applicants, the whole process takes time.”