Once the Class 12 board examination results are out, many students who don’t qualify the JEE or the NEET as well as those looking at pursuing honours courses will make a beeline for Delhi University (DU) colleges. Many also said that the university itself was a brand and the name of the course or the college did not matter.

Humanities student Saman Hussain said that no college of UP had qualified in the NIRF Top-100 and if she had to go to another city, she would rather choose Delhi over more distant places such as Mumbai, Pune or Bangalore.

“Besides Delhi being closer to my home town, DU’s cultural programmes are considered among the best. Also, being the capital of the country, Delhi provides good internship and job opportunities,” she said.

While DU is a preferred centre of higher education for students from across the country, experts said that the rising demand for the university among students of Lucknow was also because no colleges of UP could make it into the Top-100 list in the recently released NIRF 2019 rankings.

Ashok Ganguly, former chairman, CBSE board, said, “I am unsurprised by the development (increased preference for DU among Lucknow students). There has been a gradual decline in higher education quality in the state and there haven’t been any significant efforts made to stem the rot.”

“As far as higher education is concerned, the state is still in a 20th century mindset. How will then we help our students get ready for Industry 4.0? This is the single most important reason why after completing Class 12 our meritorious students are migrating to other states/ places in search of quality education” he said.

Siblings Shruti and Kriti Bansal, who completed Class 12 from Study Hall, said, “We know that the best DU colleges such as Hindu and SRCC have a cut-off of 99%, but we will try nevertheless. They are the best for honours courses in the country. They offer the best placements and internships too.”

Lakshita Jaggi, another student who is applying for the B Com honours course in DU, said, “Everyone knows that DU is the best. It needs no justification. The colleges in Lucknow are no match.”

Vasundhra Prasad, a La Martiniere Girls’ College student who is planning to go overseas for her graduation programme, said that her ultimate aim was to crack the UPSC examination. “Lucknow is not on my list. If I stay in India, I will either go for SRCC or St Stephen’s College,” she said.

Meanwhile, many students, especially those who chose the physics- chemistry-mathematics combination in Class 12, said that DU was only good for those wishing to pursue non-professional higher education degrees. “With regards to professional courses such as B Tech or designing programmes, DU stands nowhere. The best colleges are the IITs, the NIITs and the NID,” said students Privishi Kapoor and Vinayak Singh

First Published: Apr 11, 2019 08:08 IST