Sadat Hussain
NEW DELHI—The University of Delhi recently announced to conduct admissions in all undergraduate courses from the academic year 2022-23 through Central University Common Entrance Test (CUCET) or Delhi University Common Entrance Test (DUCET).
But the question arises: What made Delhi University authorities reach such a decision? Are admissions through CUCET or DUCET feasible? These are the questions that need to be addressed.
In the current academic year, 2021-2022, Delhi University received 4,38,696 applications for admission to the undergraduate courses, apart from 1,41,120 applications for admission to the postgraduate studies and 30,209 applications for MPhil and Ph.D. courses.
The UG applications are for 70,000 seats distributed across different courses and 90 colleges affiliated with the university.
According to information uploaded on the university website and media reports, some of the top colleges have set a 100 percent cut-off mark for some of the top courses or even all the courses. These colleges are listed among the top 10 ranked colleges in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) of the Union Ministry of Education.
Academicians, educationists, and organizations have expressed their deep concern over this overall scenario where the cut-off mark for some of the UG courses has reached a near-impossible 100 percent in Delhi University.
Delhi University Prof. Anita Rampal had earlier raised a question over this alarming scenario. “Does this signal that school does not matter, or that marks do not have much value?”, she had questioned.
There are many reasons for this situation. But, unfortunately, this scenario may spread to other universities soon.
However, DU alone cannot be held responsible for this situation. Various Higher Secondary School Certificate examination (HSC) boards also must take equal responsibility. According to a study, most of the applicants to the DU are from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) background.
As many as 12 colleges of Delhi University had featured in the top 20 ranked colleges under NIRF in the year 2020 and 2021. This may contribute to the high demand for courses at Delhi University.
High demand and low availability of seats have, in part, led to this rising cut-off mark. However, in the context of increasing demand and expansion of higher education and an improved gross enrolment ratio, universities must expand their overall infrastructural and teaching capacities by filling all the vacant posts in faculties at all levels or creating fresh vacancies based on the requirement.
Earlier, Delhi University, during the implementation of OBC reservations, had increased seats up to 50 percent without simultaneously expanding the infrastructure to provide facilities to extra candidates. This led to crowded classrooms, lowered teaching quality, and a worsening student-teacher ratio. According to a recent statement of the university registrar, this problem arose because of the university’s policy to admit all the applicants who cleared the cut-off mark.
However, this is not the only reason behind the current crisis.
The tendency of a ‘flawed’ system of awarding marks by various HSC boards, according to media reports, is among one of the reasons for the existing scenario at Delhi University. In 2018, journalist Meghnad Bose identified the weaknesses in the marking system of the CBSE and International School Certificate (ISC) examinations, particularly during the period from 2004-2016. Bose found out how 10-15 marks were given additionally, above the genuine or actual marks scored, to make the overall score reach the 95 percent mark.
According to CBSE’s former Controller of Examinations, the cap for such “moderated” marks (to be exact a flawed and unreasonable system in the present case) is at 95 percent (giving ten marks to someone scoring 85 percent, or 15 to someone scoring 80, but not exceeding that). In an April 2017 announcement by the Human Resource Development Ministry, the spiking of marks through “moderation” was done away. In 2018, the Central government set up an Inter-Board Working Group panel to ensure the discontinuation of “moderation”. This recommendation was agreed upon by all HSC boards from 2018, except Kerala State HSC Board. But as per The Times of India report in 2019, “moderation” continued in 2017, 2018, and 2020, despite the announcement to the contrary. The boards continued similar “moderation” during the pandemic-year exams also.
In such a situation of the growing cut-off percentage for admission to various undergraduate courses and an HSC examination system plagued with flaws and deficiencies, the University of Delhi authorities and its college management could have taken the following measures, instead of finding an easy and short cut solution of CUCET or DUCET.
1. Expanding the capacity of the college infrastructure.
2. Filling all the vacant faculty positions at all the levels in the university and its affiliated colleges.
3. Establishing more government undergraduate colleges. As per AISHE (All India Survey for Higher Education) Report, 2019-20, private colleges comprise 78 percent of all the colleges.
4. Creating new vacancies of faculty to teach at the UG level.
5. Abandoning the flawed moderation principle and artificial ‘spiking’ of marks at the HSC level.
6. Improving the quality of teaching and learning at the HSC level.
7. Deliberating into implementing CCE (Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation) at the HSC level in the long run.
The author is a research scholar at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
