DU admission seekers now sceptical

New Delhi: Students seeking admissions in Delhi University, especially from other states, have second thoughts seeing the utter confusion on the campus. About 2.7 lakh students have applied for admission to the University of Delhi in 2014. However, the current controversy about the FYUP programme has forced many of these applicants to reconsider their decision. 

Sanya Khurana, a student who scored 97.5% in her CBSE exams said, “The way things are going, it seems like there will be uncertainty about the programme in the future as well.  What if they reach a decision now, and then change it a year later? I am seriously reconsidering taking admission to DU and pursuing my course in some other university, perhaps in Mumbai.”  

Others have chosen to play it safe by securing admission elsewhere and keeping DU as one of their options. Shyla Verma, another student who scored 95.25%, and wants to pursue B.Com at DU, says that she has secured admission in different universities in Delhi, but is still waiting for the cut off lists at DU. “The prestige associated with the University is such that one cannot just reject it because of a controversy. The learning environment and the opportunities that come with having studied at DU are unparalleled.”

However, the choice of not coming to DU is a luxury for students who have achieved high scores in their Class XII exams. For students who did not score as highly, DU is the best of the few options they have.

A few students from the batch already enrolled in the FYUP are also leaving the University. They feel that the course content and the implementation of the programme is not worth spending 4 years for. “Irrespective of whether the FYUP is continued or not, the quality of education here in the coming years does not look too good to me. The Foundation Courses that we studied in the first year were an absolute waste of time, and I don’t want to spend the next 3 years similarly. I’d rather start afresh in a different place than graduate with a degree that doesn’t leave me with any substantial knowledge and skills.” Says Gurkiran Kaur, a former student at IP College for Women, DU.

Students who are currently pursuing a B.Tech degree, which was introduced as part of the FYUP, are also worried about how events will shape up. Ketan Malhotra, a student of B. Tech C. Sc. At SSCBS, says, “We chose Delhi University over various other colleges that we could have gone to for engineering. If they do not offer a B. Tech degree for Science students in the forthcoming batches, our degree would be worthless, as compared to the same degree from another college. We will be forced to reconsider if we should continue with this course.”