Admissions to Delhi University under the extra curricular activities (ECA) quota, which were earlier scrapped, were restored at a Standing Committee meeting on Monday.
Verify authenticity
Earlier, a university sub-committee, formed to deliberate over sports and ECA admissions, had on May 14 unanimously decided to scrap the ECA quota as it would have been impossible to verify the authenticity of uploaded certificates and assess the authenticity of video performances, minutes from the committee’s latest meeting on July 17 state.
Following several petitions from stakeholders, cases in the High Court as well as recommendation by the university’s Chancellor, Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu, the administration instructed the committee to review its decision.
Based on certificates
According to new recommendations made by the sub-committee, admissions under this quota will now be based entirely on certificates submitted by applicants.
These will undergo “forensic examination” and will be awarded marks out of 100 based on four broad categories. These include: participation or prizes won in competitions which account for most of the marks, training or exams, workshops attended, and finally, published work or exhibitions. Each of these categories also have their own separate rubrics for awarding marks such as the level of competition or training, duration of the workshop and others.
Up to 14 categories of ECA activities can be opted from. Applicants scoring 20 marks and above in uploaded certificates shall be eligible for the final merit list of admission on the basis of ECA, minutes of the sub-committee’s meeting state.
Certificates dating back to May 2017 will be considered for this purpose.
Candidates applying under the ECA quota will be given a maximum of 15% concession in cut-offs.
Objects to decision
Standing Committee member Arun Attree objected to the decision, arguing that there was no way of authenticating ECA certificates, unlike sports, as there is no government-approved institutions issuing such certificates, he said. This would make it unfair to deserving candidates and may even lead to cases of impersonation, he said.
In a separate development, members of teachers’ group, Indian National Teachers’ Congress (INTEC) wrote to the Vice- Chancellor raising concerns of nepotism and “back door entry” to colleges through the ECA quota and recommended that admissions under this quota only be carried out through Music and Fine Arts departments as a counter.
It also termed the university’s decision contradictory, given that on the one hand the sub-committee noted that authenticating certificates would be hard while on the other hand, admissions would take place only through certificates.