75,000 and counting

Room for all DU’s School of Open Learning has already enrolled 20% more students than last year, reports, Ritika Chopra.

The mad rush for admission is not just confined to colleges affiliated to Delhi University (DU).

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Inundated with applications, the university’s School of Open Learning (SOL) this year has achieved its highest figure of student registration ever — the authorities have had to employ extra security to manage the increasing rush of students.

Officials said already the school has admitted 20 per cent more students than the figure recorded at this time last year. Till Friday, over 75,000 students had taken admission in SOL.

“The number will only increase as students can seek admission till the end of October with a late fee of Rs 200,” said Madhvi (who goes by her first name), in charge of the SOL computer centre.

The increasing rush to the institution every year could be attributed to youngsters who are edged out of competition because of low marks, but still hanker for the DU brand.

“I didn’t score well in my board examination and couldn’t get through any of the colleges I had applied to. However, I insist on a DU degree and so have come here to get admission in B.Com (Honours),” said Sarita Jaiswal, as she waited in queue at the admission counter on Friday.

Established in 1962, SOL offers correspondence courses on behalf of DU. It runs five undergraduate and five postgraduate courses and has over three lakh students enrolled across all courses in all years.

“A student of SOL follows the same syllabus and at the end of the programme sits for the same exam as any other regular DU student. Our student also gets the same degree as the others who have studies in the so-called sought after colleges,” added Pokhriyal.