Varsity sees increase in takers for the course at undergraduate level. All seats filled up at South Campus after announcement of second cut-off list
Varsity sees increase in takers for the course at undergraduate level. All seats filled up at South Campus after announcement of second cut-off list
Hindi is handy. Well, the new batch of students at Delhi University seems to believe so. The admissions process at the varsity is in its last stages, and the fate of aspiring candidates is almost sealed. However, the admission scene in 2011 is different than last year in terms of the courses in demand. This year DU has seen a soaring increase in takers for Hindi at the undergraduate level (UG) level. Apparently, this is for the first time in years that all the seats in Hindi course have been taken up by students after the second cut-off list came out.
In demand: Motilal Nehru College at South Campus is one of the
colleges to have seen a lot of interest from candidates in their
Hindi courses. File Pic
No room
In most south campus colleges including Lady Shri Ram (LSR), Maitreyi, Deshbandhu, Aurobindo, Shaheed Bhagat Singh and Moti Lal Nehru, seats for Hindi Hons were closed after the second cut-off list was put out.
According to Deputy Dean, south campus, Dinesh Varshney: "Interestingly, it has happened for the first time in many years that contenders for Hindi outnumbered those from other popular streams like English, B Com and Economics Hons. Though the cut off for Hindi is usually not very high, this time round also, it was between 62 -70 per cent in most of the colleges, yet it is seen that the seats were closed this early."
However, teachers are of the opinion that this trend of Hindi being in popular demand has been there for the past two to three years. This development of Hindi taking a priority at par with other popular streams is symptomatic of it. "Hindi has been a popular course among students since Hindi media has made itself visible outright. This has lured young students into taking up the course," said Sanjeev Kumar, professor, Department of Hindi, Deshbandhu College.
Study in contrast: Aspirants for admission at Delhi University.
Pic/Parveen Negi
Whereas Professor Ashutosh Kumar, Faculty of Arts said: "Hindi has emerged as a lucrative career option for people as the demand for translators has also grown manifold. Also, India is in the process of emerging as an economic superpower in sometime soon and so the market is also expanding accordingly. The growth of media throughout South Asia has made it the lingua-franca."
Media boom
Notably, amongst the several optional papers offered in Hindi course for the final years, includes a set of two major papers - Principals and History of Journalism and; Media Writing. According to teachers, there is always a maddening rush to take a seat in this set of papers, as they offer a wide scope for Hindi Journalism. "I think the demand for Hindi increasing due to a huge job market is the basic perception prevalent among students and their parents. More and more people wish to be seen as a part of the electronic media and find it rather more interesting than other theory subjects," added Sanjeev.
Surprise!
"In my career of 43 years, this is for the first time that seats in Hindi course have been taken up in the first two cut-offs. Surprisingly, this year, we have over admitted students in the course and the seats for English Hons have not been filled yet," said BC Sehgal, principal, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College.
Gopeshwar Singh, Head, Department of Hindi, South Campus, Arts Faculty said "The language has always been important strategically as well as professionally. However, the breakthrough of Hindi electronic media has diversified the entire scope of the language. Young people aspiring for glamour and a better lifestyle than the other routine jobs rush towards this growing industry. Hence, takers are undoubtedly more."
Tongue-tied?
BA Honours courses in Sanskrit, Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Bengali and Punjabi languages offered by Delhi University colleges found very few takers even after the second cut-offs were released.
At Zakir Husain College, which offers BA Honours in Arabic, Urdu, Persian and Bengali, no students have so far taken admission for Persian and Bengali, each with a total of 23 seats, even though the courses have no cut-off marks. One student joined the college for Urdu Honours with 30 seats while 10 students, six of them girls, took up Arabic Honours with a total of 23 seats.
Quota conundrum
HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday expressed concerns over OBC seats remaining vacant at universities and said he will soon meet DU vice-chancellor Dinesh Singh soon to settle the issue. "OBC quotas are not being filled. This is a matter of great concern for me. If the cut-off is so high, how will the OBC quota in Delhi University and JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University) be filled?" he said Thursday. "According to the Supreme Court judgment, there has to be a 10 percent differential, if number one student is 99 percent, the OBC student must be 89 percent. Where do you get OBC candidates with 89 percent to 99 percent for quotas?" Sibal asked.
He said he is contemplating moving the Supreme Court on the 10 percent difference.
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