Varsity increased the qualifying marks to 60 per cent for direct admittance at the last moment
Varsity increased the qualifying marks to 60 per cent for direct admittance at the last momentFate of many students hangs in the balance as in a surprising move Delhi University informed them to appear for an entrance test after they had already secured admission.
FILE PICRashmi Sharma was happy after getting a seat in MA (Political Science) at School of Open Learning (SOL) in DU. However, when the time to attend the classes came closer, she was called and informed by the university that her admission was null and void. DU told her that she needed to clear an entrance test and take admission again to continue with the course.
However, Rashmi claims that the prospectus issued by the college states that students with 55 per cent marks and above in honours are eligible for direct admission to post graduate courses offered byu00a0 SOL.
"Last month I took admission in SOL, North Campus. On Monday, I got a shocking surprise; a call from SOL asking me to appear for its entrance exam. I was told that the eligibility criterion has been changed after internal deliberations. Now I am really disappointed. They have already conducted the entrance tests for students who are not eligible for direct admission and put up the result on the website," said Rashmi.
When she asked the university to refund her admission fees, she was told to collect it within two days or it would be forfeited. "I guess there is some big racket behind this. How can a central university like DU have such an irregular admission process? Now I am clueless about what to do. If I don't pass the test, my one year will be ruined," she said.
Rashmi is not the only one facing such problems. There are hundreds of other students facing a similar situation. Sushil Jain, another student who scored 56 per cent and managed to get direct admission into the same course, is in a fix. "I was out on a vacation when I got a call from the university. At such short notice it is almost impossible to sit for the examination," he lamented
"I thought DU is a reputed university and everything is systematic here. However, after this experience, my entire perception has changed. Now I am planning to go to court," said another student Ravi Kumar.
Accepting it as an inadvertent mistake on their part, SOL Executive Director H C Pokhriyal said, "All this happened due to a printing mistake on the prospectus and we takeu00a0 responsibility for it. The students were not informed at the right time. When we found out, we called up all the students who scored more than 55 per cent but less than 60 per cent and got direct admission earlier and asked them to appear in an entrance test scheduled for August 13."
Dis-appointmentLast year Staff Selection Commission (SSC) rejected candidatures of aspirants having degrees from SOL. The commission claimed that the institution was not recognised by the Distance Education Council (DEC). Six section officers, 48 tax assistant and hundreds of other students of SOL were selected under various examinations conducted by the SSC. However, they didn't get their appointment letters.
Later DEC granted recognition to the SOL courses after Delhi High Court's intervention.
