Underlining the need to set-up more colleges and universities in the National Capital, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday, 16 October, wrote to Union Minister of Education Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal, urging him to amend a section of the Delhi University act that requires new colleges to affiliate themselves with either DU or IP University.
Why should you care?
In the first cut-off released by colleges affiliated to the University of Delhi, cut-offs have seen a spike, with Lady Shri Ram College for Women setting the benchmark at 100 percent for three courses – BA (Hons) Economics, BA (Hons) Political Science and BA (Hons) Psychology courses.
This year alone, 3,53,918 students have registered for UG courses at DU, as against only 70,000 seats available with the central university. Moreover, the number of students scoring above 95 percent in CBSE class 12 board exams have increased to 38,686.
While several top colleges are expected to close cut-offs for popular courses at 96-97 percent, many are likely to miss out on their preferred college, even after scoring above 90 percent.
Which Act was Kejriwal referring to?
Maintaining that his government wants to invest in new colleges and universities, but is shackled by provisions of the Delhi University act, Chief Minister Kejriwal asserted that not a single new college had been affiliated to the University of Delhi in the last 30 years.
“The Act was made by British in 1922 and that’s how it operates till now. Under Section 5 (2) of this act, if a new college is opened in Delhi, it must be affiliated to DU, which already has 91 affiliated colleges affiliated to it and is saturated.”Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister, Delhi
Chief Minister Kejriwal added that in 1998, an amendment to the Act had said that apart from DU, new colleges can also be affiliated to IP University. However, IP University, he pointed out, is a technical university not meant for B.A and B.Sc courses and has reached saturation as well.
What did Kejriwal say about cut-offs?
The Chief Minister said that students who have passed out of class 12 and are now seeking admissions in colleges are facing problems. “If cut-off is 100 percent, where will other children who scored between 60-90 percent go?” he asked.
Maintaining that the number of seats have remained more or less stagnant, while the number of applicants have risen, Chief Minister Kejriwal said that successive governments are to blame for the admission crisis.
“It is not the fault of students. We are at fault, every govt that came to Delhi, it is their fault and that of Central govt. This is happening because in Delhi, colleges and universities have shortage of seats.”Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister, Delhi
What about students of Delhi?
Chief Minister Kejriwal said that that while every year, around 2.5 lakh children pass out of class 12 in Delhi, only 50 percent of these students get admission in Delhi colleges.
“Where will the rest go? Two students from Delhi are competing on one seat and this is the reason why there’s such a big crisis.”Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister, Delhi
He said that since students from all over the country aspire to take admission into Delhi colleges, it is important that the number of colleges and institutions be increased.
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