The countdown begins

With the students awaiting the CBSEresults with bated breath to get an entry into the hallowed portals of highereducation, the Delhi University (DU) is gearing up for the forthcomingadmissions. The chairman of the university’s admission advisory committee,T K V Subramanian remarked, ‘‘We’ve been planning for thishuge exercise for the past few months and hope everything will go without ahitch.’’ Recently, the admissions’ committee unveiled theadmission schedule to the various undergraduate courses for the year 2002-03.The DU colleges will start issuing as well as receiving forms for admissions forthe first-year, bachelor’s courses, sfrom June 5 onwards, until June 19— which is the last date for submission of forms. (See box) DU canaccommodate about 35,000 students in regular courses and 5,000 in professionalcourses. Fair process The dean of students’ welfare (DSW) office at theDU’s main campus, acts as a facilitating centre for the admissions. TheDSW Hema Raghavan remarked: ‘‘DU admission is a transparent process.The percentage cut-off marks for admission to various courses in the collegesare announced and candidates with a lower percentage cannot gainadmission.’’ She added, ‘‘Back-door entry to a largeextent is prevented with the cut-off percentages being published in all themajor dailies.’’ For the first time the university will conduct atwo-day orientation programme for the students belonging to the Scheduled Castes(SC) and the Scheduled Tribes (ST) and those with physical disabilities on June3 and June 4 at the DSW office. The students may pick up the SC/ST applicationforms at the session. ‘‘Admission process for the SC/ST candidateshas been arduous and cumbersome. This time we would like to give the SC/STstudents the benefit of joining classes along with the regularcandidates,’’ remarked Raghavan. Forms /Online Info Submission ofthe application forms is the first step towards admission to your chosen courseand college. Although all the colleges issue their own application forms, thecentralised application forms sold at various centres for Re 1 is accepted bymost colleges. However, a few colleges including St Stephen’s acceptapplications through forms issued by them. Last year, nearly 14-lakh centralisedforms were sold. ‘‘This year too, we’ll print a similar numberof forms. Besides, the forms may be downloaded from DU website-www.du.ac.in,’’ said Raghavan. The online forms will be madeavailable by the end of this month,’’ she added. Information centresTo facilitate smooth distribution of centralised application forms, informationbulletins and last year’s cut-off list, the university has set-up 16information centres in various colleges namely, ANDC (Tel: 6412547); Bharati(Tel: 5547328); B R Ambedkar (Tel: 2221810); College of Vocational Studies (Tel:6438544); Dayal Singh (Tel: 4367819); JDMC (Tel: 5787754); Keshav Mahavidyalaya(Tel: 7105486); KMC (Tel: 7667741); Maharaja Agrasen (Tel: 2716039); PGDAV (Tel:6312092); Rajdhani (Tel: 5930752); Satyavati (Tel: 7219570); Shradhanand (Tel:7202278); Vivekananda (Tel: 2150100) and at the offices of the DSW, North Campus(Tel: 7667092) and Joint DSW, South Campus (Tel: 4109832). The centres willfunction between 10 am and 1 pm from June 5- June 19. Four centres - the officesof DSW and Joint DSW, B R Ambedkar and Rajdhani colleges - will serve asinformation centres for SC/ ST candidates. Raghavan said: ‘‘Studentsshould apply to those colleges where their marks will fetch them aseat.’’ She added: ‘‘Students unable to make it to theregular colleges can still be absorbed through the DU’s non-formalstream.’’ The non-formal stream comprises School of CorrespondenceCourses and Continuing Education; Non-Collegiate Women Education Board (NCWEB),and the External Candidates’ Cell. More than 50,000 students are admittedto the correspondence courses every year; and the NCWEB admits about 5,000students annually. Details: DSW - 7667092; website -www.du.ac.in Turn to page 2for DUSU Interviews