Delhi University Undergraduate Admissions 2020: Reasons for Very High Admission Cut offs
The admission process at DU has been delayed by more than three months due to the ongoing coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic. Last year, the first cut-off was announced on June 28.
The cut-offs for the admissions are decided on the basis of an analysis of the profile and data of the applicants. In addition, several other local factors such as the number of seats available in different courses and past experience are also taken into account.
DU officials said admissions under the first cut-off will be conducted between Monday and Wednesday; and the second cut-off list will be released on October 19. The university is expected to release five cut-offs followed by a special cut-off this year.
Officials across the colleges cite two major reasons behind the increase in cut-off this year — increase in the number of applications and unavailability of course-wise applicants data. Unlike previous years, students were allowed to apply for all courses this year, leaving colleges without data on number of applicants per course.
Anju Shrivastava said, “Since the registration was open for all courses we studied last year’s trends while deciding the cut-offs. Though there were suggestions to fix 100% for some courses, we decided to keep it at 99.5%.”
Officials said DU received 354,003 applications, the highest ever, for around 70,000 undergraduate seats this year.
Explaining why the university has got a record number of applicants this year, officials said since the registration window was open for 10 weeks instead of the usual three weeks due to the delay in the results of board examinations amid the pandemic, applicants who had applied for entrance-based professional courses had also applied to the university as a “backup option.”
Several principals said this is why colleges set the cut-offs higher to counter “over-admissions”. In Delhi University, colleges are supposed to offer admission to all applicants who meet the cut-off criteria. There is no first-come, first-serve policy. Many times, colleges need to increase the number of seats to accommodate all eligible students.
The high cut-offs are also a manifestation of the number of high scorers in CBSE Class 12 board exams increasing exponentially this year. This is significant since a majority of applications (285,128) received by the university are from CBSE board. While the number of CBSE students scoring 95% and above increased by 118.6% this year, those getting 90% and above went up by 67.48%.
“The second list is the one to watch out for. Results for various entrance exams are out and students may also have taken admission in their local universities during this period. So, after the admissions under the first cut-off list are concluded, we will get a better picture,” Nanda said.
Gurpreet Singh Tuteja, former Dean of Students at DU, said the university’s decision of not deducting any mark while switching the stream this year also played a role in higher the cut-offs. “Unlike previous years, where there would be a percentage point deduction if the applicant switched from one stream to another, this year students can take admission in any stream without any deduction of masks. This increases the chances of over admissions. Colleges played safe and fixed higher cut-offs,” he said.