DU likely to conduct entrance tests for UG admissions from 2019 with NTA’s help

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 20: The University of Delhi is planning to hold entrance examination apart from considering the Class XII scores for admissions to all of its undergraduate programmes, from the admission year 2019-20. The university will be fixing a weightage to the marks obtained in Class 12th board examinations.

The university admission committee is yet to announce the details of this Delhi University Entrance Test, but more likely to introduce it from the coming admission year 2019. The Delhi University Vice Chancellor, Yogesh Tyagi said, “The admission committee paneling education experts, college principals and university faculty is going to take up the matter with regard to admission year 2019-20.”

Moreover, with the entrance test coming into place, the university may also seek help from the National Testing Agency (NTA) which recently agreed to extend its support to Jawaharlal Nehru University for conducting the JNU Entrance Examination (JNUEE). “The DU admission committee may also consider the possibility of taking NTA’s assistance in conducting the DU entrance exams for UG admissions,” signalled Dr Tyagi.

Why is DU switching to entrance-based admissions?

With the DU admission cut-off raising its bar every year, the admission committee sees entrance test as a feasible option to break this cut-off game. However, the admission cut-off still in place, but fixed by the DU admission committee, will ensure that it doesn’t reach the bizarre mark of 97, 98, 99, 99.99 and even 100, as seen in some cases, in previous admission years.

Moreover, with the entrance exams, the University of Delhi will witness more DU aspirants applying for the UG admissions.

The DU entrance tests for UG admissions will also strike-off the score gap between the different 12th examination boards, state boards and CBSE. There has always been a question of disparity between the CBSE boards marks and other state boards.

The third attempt

The Delhi University had earlier also, precisely at two instances, planned to administer the UG admissions through entrance exams but couldn’t take up the final call. In the year 2017, while proposing to conduct all the UG admissions through entrance tests, the Delhi University hit the roadblock after student groups pointed out that it would not be quite student-friendly to conduct computer-based entrances, in such a short notice.

Even in the last year, the plan could not be concreted after the admission committee and advisory committee of the Delhi University reached a common consensus. “The entrance exam modalities are proving hindrance to take the major step with outsourcing the test to a private partner is another bottleneck,” claims an advisory committee member.

The new admission system of Delhi University

If the new ‘entrance-based’ admission mode is rolled-in, the Delhi University will first conduct an entrance exam of the UG applicants and shortlist the candidates based on their entrance exam scores. This will then be followed by considering the ‘Best of four’ subject marks in Class XII, even as the final merit list will be prepared considering the candidate’s DU entrance test scores as well as the 12th board merit.

The University of Delhi, currently is conducting computer-based entrance test for admissions to its nine undergraduate and all postgraduate offered programmes. While the majority of undergraduate admissions are offered on the basis of Class 12th board marks, with a ‘Best of Four’ subjects formula applied for preparing DU admission merit.