With students from across the country applying to Delhi University, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development wants the university to start an elaborate counselling system to streamline the admission process.
“There are so many colleges but students want to choose from among the top five colleges and this leads to astronomical cut-offs for these colleges. There has to be a proper counselling session for students to know the colleges properly,” a source in the MHRD said.
“People are choosing streams out of peer pressure or their understanding of things. There is no proper counselling system,” the source said.
The MHRD had asked DU weeks back to work towards devising such a system, said the source.
“They must counsel and help students. One seat in the university costs the Central exchequer ₹2.5-lakhs and seats should be filled through an informed process,” the source added.
Regional help desks
As of now, the system of providing help is more informal, with some students’ organisations putting up help desks. Some of these groups like the All Assamese Students’ Association or the Naga Students’ Union, Delhi look after students coming from specific regions only.
All Assamese Students’ Association general-secretary Mrigen Jyoti Kashyap told said that 1,500 students from Assam have already contacted the organisation.
“It is a two-month-long process. Even today, we are organising an orientation programme at the Assam Bhavan, in which professors will interact with guardians and answer their queries regarding admissions,” he said.
“We flash the numbers of our office-bearers in local TV channels in Assam and our members also go to places like Guwahati, Dibrugarh and Golaghat so that we can interact with prospective candidates.” He said that while there were some political networks for helping students, there is still no official counselling from the university.