“We are expecting a higher number of admissions this year because many students might have not qualified for the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), and some might have missed the CUET due to the glitches,” said Professor Payal Mago, director of Delhi University’s School of Open Learning (SOL) to The Quint.
On 3 October, the SOL added six new “job-oriented” courses to its curriculum, including undergraduate and post-graduate programmes in management, economics, and library science.
Mago said, “These courses are an alternate avenue for many students who either didn’t clear the CUET or faced glitches.”
The CUET was made compulsory by the University Grant Commission (UGC) this year onward for admission in any central university. It’s not needed for SOL.
About the new courses added by the SOL, Delhi University’s Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh said, “This has been done after 28 years." He said that these new courses being started for UG and PG will be job-oriented and professional curriculum based. The admission criterion is solely board results, and there is no age limit.
What are These New Courses?
The SOL is launching three new courses this year at the undergraduate level under Bachelor of Business Administration: Financial Investment Analysis (BBA-FIA), Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS), and Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Economics.
The new post-graduate programmes include Master of Business Administration (MBA), Bachelor of Library and Information Science (BLISc) and Master of Library and Information Science (MLISc).
“Except MBA, the number of seats in all the five new courses is unlimited. Whereas, for MBA, a total of 20,000 seats have been approved,” said Mago.
The institute already offers various UG and PG programmes in disciplines such as history, political science, and commerce, among others.
Mago said, “There will be an offline component to these courses too. Students will come to campus on Saturdays and Sundays.”
Regarding skill development and placements, Mago said, “Since the courses follow the essence of the National Education Policy (NEP), we will ensure that there is a skill-development component. There will be internships as well as campus placements. We have special placements for visually-impaired and other special needs’ students.”
Admission Process and Criteria for the Courses
The SOL director further added that the admissions to these new courses are likely to begin by the end of this week. No exact date, however, has been announced yet by the school.
Each course has its own admission criteria. For instance, the Bachelor of Management Studies will admit students who've scored 60 percent in their class 12 exams and 60 percent in Math.
The registration and admission process will be online at sol.du.ac.in.
Glitches, Delays Due To CUET
The new courses provide an alternate route for students who missed the CUET or did not score well in the multiple-choice question (MCQ) test.
Educators have highlighted that the CUET might not be easily accessible for all. In addition to this, the delays in the process have led a number of students to seek admission in private universities.
In an interview with The Quint, DU professor Abha Dev Habib had said, "The CUET process has blocked admission to all central universities. In the midst of all this confusion, students have started taking admission into private colleges to be on the safe side. Some of our own teachers, whose children have a quota, have told me that they have taken admission in private institutes because they do not know where they will stand in the examination."
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)