Students qualifying through Combined Aptitude Test for English give off campus colleges a miss

CATE out of the bag at Delhi University

Students qualifying through Combined Aptitude Test for English give off campus colleges a miss

English may well be a funny language, but several Delhi University colleges are not amused by the state of things.

Representative pic

The Combined Aptitude Test for English (CATE)u00a0-- common entrance for admission to BA in English (Honours) at 17 Delhi University collegesu00a0-- recorded near 100 per cent attendance. But despite that some off campus colleges are facing problems in finding enough takers for the course. With several seats lying vacant, the colleges are now contemplating other means of admitting students.

Take for instance Bharti College located at Janakpuri. The institution has about 62 seats for the course but only 15 have been filled till now. The admission dates for the second cut-off lists are over and the third list is already out.

Bharti College principal, Dr Promodini Varma said, "The entire issue should be taken more seriously. If this continues, we will soon have to come up with our own process of selecting students for the subject. We can not conduct the course with 15-20 students. I think all the colleges offering this course should come forward and accept CATE results. Then only will the situation improve."

Facing similar problems is Swami Shraddhanand College located on the outskirts of Delhi, at Alipur. The college has around 45 seats for BA English (Honours) and only 10 students have enrolled so far. The college principal has no hopes of finding takers for the rest of the seats even after the third cut-off list.

"There is no point in admitting students on two different criteria but we are left with no option. The college will think it over seriously after the third cut-off list. Students who secure a good score mange to find a college on campus. Those who don't, opt out for some other course," said Dr Surinder Kumar Kundra, principal of the college.

EXAM SLAM
Of the 9,250 aspirants who registered for the test, 9,240 students appeared for the test this year. The students were competing for 500-odd seats, which is an increase of 150 seats from last year.
CATE 2010, the test for admission to BA (Honours) English across 17 DU colleges, had two question papers. The first one comprised 50 multiple-choice questions of one mark each, and was supposed to be completed in 30 minutes, while the second paper comprised two questions of 25 marks each, to be completed in one hour. Cut offs for B.A. programmes and English (Hons) have been lowered at several colleges.