Despite special drives, the university has struggled to fill reserved seats, with ST seats, in particular, seeing low enrolment. (File photo) Delhi University (DU) vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh has constituted a committee to look into the “shortfall” in enrolment of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students in the past years, and come up with recommendations to address the issue.
Until last year, DU used to conduct its undergraduate admissions through cut-off lists based on Class 12 marks with separate and usually lower cut-offs released for reserved categories. However, SC and ST enrolment has been a problem in DU. Despite special drives, the university has struggled to fill these seats, with ST seats, in particular, seeing low enrolment.
This year, with DU moving to the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for admission, the university felt the need to take certain measures to avoid a repeat of previous years, said officials.
In a notice dated April 25, the Joint Registrar (Establishment) said, “The Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor has constituted a Committee to examine the issue regarding shortfall in the enrolment of SC/ST students and make recommendation to enhance the enrolment of SC/ST students in the University of Delhi with immediate effect.”
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The eight-member committee consists of Dean of Students Welfare (DSW) Pankaj Arora as the chairperson and Joint DSW Gurpreet Singh Tuteja as the member secretary.
“The committee has been constituted to monitor the situation from before the admissions begin, as well as to help them prepare for CUET. We’re exploring the possibility of providing them guidance in a classroom mode or through online classrooms,” said Arora.
He said the first meeting of the committee will take place on May 5 or May 6 in which the schedule and modalities will be worked out.
On Friday, DU is also conducting an online webinar to apprise students about the reservation policies for UG admissions through CUET. V-C Singh, registrar Vikas Gupta, dean of admissions Haneet Gandhi and joint dean of admissions Sanjeev Singh will also be present for the webinar.
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