Out of the 6000 students that took the Combined Aptitude Test for English (CATE) for about 350 seats, as many as 79 students scored 80% and above, while 579 students scored between 70% and 79% in the consolidated scores. The results will be declared by the Delhi University’s department of English, on Tuesday.

Swati Malik has been declared the overall topper with 89.83%. The common entrance test for aspirants seeking admission to the English (Hons) programme in 12 colleges was conducted on June 17.

A large number of students have got zero in the multiple choice question section. The consolidated score is calculated by giving 70% weightage to the CATE score and 30% to the class XII best-of-four aggregate. The result has been sent to the different colleges and they will declare their individual cut-offs.

There are plans to introduce a bill in the Assembly during the ongoing budget session to upgrade Delhi College of Engineering (DCE) as Delhi Technological University.

After approving the proposal on Thursday, CM Sheila Dikshit said the decision has been taken because it would provide the much-needed academic and administrative independence to DCE, which has the distinction of being the mother institution of IIT Delhi, School of Planning & Architecture, DIPSAR and College of Arts.

It will also open up the road for making new engineering colleges under the proposed university. According to senior officials, the decision is in tune with the recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission which has emphasized on autonomy of institutions and creation of synergy between education and research.

I believe, this is a good move by the Delhi Government, because Delhi has very small number of seats if we compare the figures with other states.

Do you know that Raghu Ram, the senior supervising producer at MTV India and the executive producer of the show MTV Roadies is a Delhi University dropout?

Raghu, whose on-screen behaviour attracts strong reactions (of criticism and appreciation alike), is most known for frequent outbursts of harsh language and scathing criticism directed at participants of the shows he judges.

When Raghu Ram and his identical twin brother Rajiv were studying at the Delhi University, their teachers predicted that they both have no future and would sell bananas on the streets.

“Our teachers used to tell us ‘Tum dono toh kele (bananas) bechoge, kele’,” says Raghu.

In retrospect, they laugh at the idea and even express their anger towards the prevalent education system. “Is it justified to brand a student as a failure, just ’coz he hasn’t scored 90 per cent marks?” asks Raghu. And then, sometimes 90 per cent is also not good enough! “The cut-offs suggest you are good only if you’ve scored above 95 per cent. If students are branded on the basis of the marks they’ve scored, it will ruin their future. The education system needs to be changed… marks are not just the be all and end all of student life. There’s more to their individual personalities than just academics,” he emphaises.

Raghu was a student of the Deshbandhu College in the first year. In the second year, he joined Venky. And what about the third year? He didn’t sit for the third year at all, and both brothers dropeed out of the college.

You’ve heard of and seen bamboo houses, but classrooms? Yes, this is what many colleges in the Delhi University are planning, to meet the demand for extra space for thousands of additional entrants.

“We can’t keep waiting to hear from the local bodies for permission for construction. Fact is the college needs classrooms and we have decided to build them with bamboo which will have a capacity to accommodate about 45 students,” Savita M. Dutta, principal of Maitreyi College, told IANS.

Gargi, Sri Venakateswara, Daulat Ram, Maharaja Agrasen and Acharya Narender Dev colleges have also expressed their interest to greet students with classrooms and canteens built with bamboo instead of concrete.

This space crunch is said to be the result of additional 7000 seats this year. Last year, 42,000 seats were made available in the university whereas this year it has been extended to 49,000. “In a meeting a month ago, vice chancellor Deepak Pental suggested the use of bamboo as a material to build new classrooms,” said Sunil Sondhi, principal of Maharaja Agrasen College.

According to Delhi University administrative officials, the idea of these new bamboo classrooms originated from the bamboo hut canteen in the University’s south campus inaugurated a few months ago.

“Colleges like Sri Venkateswara, Gargi and Kirori Mal have got inspiration from the bamboo canteen and they plan to make classrooms from the same,” said Dinesh C. Varshney, deputy dean of students welfare (DSW), Delhi University’s south campus.

As expected, students, however, are not upbeat about the proposed bamboo classrooms. “If the fee is the same, how can they put one set of students in bamboo shacks and others in the concrete rooms? There should be equal infrastructure provided for everyone,” said Nikita, a third year student of Kamala Nehru College.

Anurag said: “I am ashamed of this decision, may be they will ask us to move into slums next year.”

Mohit, another student, said: “Why don’t the people who are planning to build bamboo classrooms have their offices made from bamboo.”

The Delhi University (DU) has received 1,29,038 forms for its undergraduate admissions this year as against 92,000 in 2008. The University actually sold 1,48,256 forms this year.

 

While the girls seemed to be the winners in pass percentage in CBSE exams, it is boys who have submitted more forms for admission in Delhi University. In total there were 72,137 boys as against 56,644 girls. Also students of CBSE board have shown a keen interest in getting admission in Delhi University (87,414 students of CBSE applied for different UG programmes).
 
Another piece of data shows that the number of students with gap year has also risen as compared to the last year (a total of 26,216 students).

Does rising cut-offs and the fear of not getting admission in your college of choice giving you cold feet, then you have a reason to smile.

The Delhi University is working on a project to provide video lectures of teachers from several colleges online. For this purpose, DU is setting up a modern studio at its Institute of Life Long Learning (ILL), where lectures of popular teachers and experts of various disciplines will be recorded and put on its portal. 

“We are getting recorded the lectures of the best of our teachers from all the colleges so that the students can learn from them on-line no matter in what college they are enrolled,” ILL Director A K Bakshi said.

 
The project has been basically initiated under the Rs 542.90 crore ‘Pan-African e-Network Project’, commissioned by the Ministry of External Affairs of India in February this year. Under this project DU will develop e-content, including the multimedia material for various disciplines to be provided to the African students. 

The video-graphed lectures will be broadcast live through satellite to the African countries so that they can get class-like atmosphere there while pursuing a DU programme without having to move out of their countries. 

These lectures will also be available for DU students too who can learn from them by just logging on to our web portal. The department has already identified the teachers in this regard and has asked them to submit their manuscripts for such lectures. 

DU is planning to put some of these lectures as early as the next month.