To know its students better, DU introduces changes in form

For years, there has been speculation about the number of students from outside the city that Delhi University admits every year. There are also guesses about the college that has produced the most number of toppers over the years.

For years, there has been speculation about the number of students from outside the city that Delhi University admits every year. There are also guesses about the college that has produced the most number of toppers over the years.

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Then, vice-chancellor Dinesh Singh was recently seen putting the number of students that dropped out in the first year at 30%.

Common to all three situations is the lack of data that the Delhi University has about the student intake. But this may change soon.

The first of these changes has already been implemented in the application form this year. Students will have to indicate whether they are from Delhi or some other state in the form. The move is aimed at preparing data on the number of students from outside Delhi that apply to DU colleges each year.

The number of outstation students in the university has been consistently increasing but no one has the data about them.

The university administration has also decided to collate data of the number of students that drop out without completing their bachelor's degrees each year.

HT had also exposed the lack of data with the university for predicting student trends.

HT had, last year, asked the university for a list of the toppers at the undergraduate level but was told that the varsity does not maintain any such data. This, despite the fact that university toppers are awarded medals in the convocation each year.

"The university did not have a lot of crucial data. According to some, the total number of teachers, too, were not known to the administration till a few months ago. We are now getting all the important data though the exercise will be a long drawn one," said a senior DU official.