Aspirants turn to DU radio as University Information Centre closed

Students usually refer to the Delhi University Information Centre (UIC) for undergraduate and post graduate programmes admission-related queries but this time the centre has remained closed for the past few days

Students usually refer to the Delhi University Information Centre (UIC) for undergraduate and post graduate programmes admission-related queries but this time the centre has remained closed for the past few days.

Students and parents at an Open Day session in Zakir Husain College in New Delhi. (Sushil Kumar/HT File)

Students who turned up at the centre with queries returned empty-handed. The outstation aspirants who have been calling the official number have been left disappointed with no one picking up the calls.

It was not exactly known why the centre is shut. But officials at Delhi University Community Radio (DUCR), which near the centre, said it was because of the lack of staff.

With no one at the UIC to attend to the queries, the DUCR is trying to compensate. “Each day we get hundreds of calls from students all across the country. They are mostly related to the online application process. They want to get details on the courses and admissions through sports quota,” said Anil Kumar, correspondent at the DUCR.

University officials admitted on condition of anonymity that the centre was short-staffed. “There are only two people to attend the calls, for tomorrow (Wednesday) we are deploying five people,” said an official.

But there are specific queries which DUCR can’t answer and highlights the need of the UIC.

“Aspirants face various hurdles like difficulties in uploading documents and they want to know whether they can fill the form for a second time. To answer such queries we go to the university ourselves to gather the information. We were told that it can be filled for a second time only from a different e-mail id. These are the few recurrent problems that crop up among the aspirants,” said Kumar.

With no one to assist aspirants at UIC, the security personnel have been directing students towards the university conference centre.