DU admissions 2021: Get the latest updates on CUCET, DUET, percentile system, and more

Admissions to many colleges are done via Central Universities Common Entrance Test (CUCET) but, in 2021, there has been no clarity regarding the mentioned exam. And, hence, the officials of the Delhi University (DU) said that they will be conducting admissions like they do every year. However, they are exploring various ways of conducting admissions this year if they need to go ahead with the merit-based enrollment process only.

DUET & CUCET 2021

While the acting vice-chancellor of DU, P.C. Joshi, said that the university was hopeful for the announcement of CUCET 2021, it has now been confirmed by the UGC that the CUCET test is unlikely to happen this year. For admission to merit-based courses, the university is trying to build a way of bringing all the education boards at par as all of them have adopted varied methods of evaluation after the Class 12 board examinations got canceled owing to Covid-19. The common entrance test is part of the National Education Policy (NEP) implemented last year.

However, UGC also informed that a common entrance test for admissions to Central Universities will be conducted for the session 2021-2022, and the CUCET will come into effect from 2022-2023.

Also, from the 2021-22 academic session, admissions to 4 additional courses, viz. Bachelor in Physiotherapy, Bachelor in Occupational Therapy, Bachelor of Prosthetics & Orthotics, and Masters of Physiotherapy, will also be done through the Delhi University Entrance Test (DUET). The chairperson for admissions, Rajiv Gupta said that DUET 2021 for all PG courses, selected UG programs, and M.Phil and Ph.D. programs will soon be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA).

When will DU admissions 2021 start?

The admission procedure for undergraduate (UG) courses is set to begin on 2nd August 2021 and the application process for postgraduate (PG), MPhil, and Ph.D. programs will be starting on 26th July 2021. Also, the schedule for PG entrance exams will be announced after the registration process begins. However, the dean of admissions, Pinki Sharma, said that the details of the admission process will be made public on Monday based on the final announcement on CUCET. If no announcement is made, the university will go ahead with the above-mentioned dates.

Delhi University believes that the assessment criteria adopted by some boards are more lenient than the others and if now, the common entrance exam is not taking place, it needs to have a policy ready, which brings all students to one level. 

What is the difference in evaluation by boards?

As the Board exam scores can not be obtained this year, CBSE has decided to evaluate students on the basis of their performance in classes 10, 11, and 12 in the ratio of 30:30:40. Similarly, the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) will be evaluating students based on their performances in classes 9 to 12.

Meanwhile, due to board exam cancellation, different state boards and school boards have opted for different methods of assessment. For example, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh boards are also considering marks of classes 10, 11, and 12, like CBSE, but their weightage criterion is different, as Haryana is giving 60% weightage to class 12 performance, UP has kept it at just 10%. The Odisha board will evaluate Class 12 students on the basis of their performance in Class 10 only.

Some officials said that because of the differences in evaluation criteria of education boards, it will become a challenge for the university to provide admission to students on the basis of the absolute scores of the students. The absolute marks cannot be considered as scores for admission as they believe that the majority of boards are likely to award higher scores this year, and hence the cut-offs are also expected to remain high. Last year, the highest cut-off percentage in the DU's merit-based list was 100% for 3 courses as announced by the Lady Shri Ram College (LSR).

Percentile method could be the admission criteria

Considering the board exam marks, if there comes out a significant difference between the results of some education boards, then the university may look to adopt a ‘percentile’ method, a senior official at the varsity revealed.

A percentile refers to the percentage of students above whom a particular student stands in the merit list. For example, if a student scores a 90 percentile, it would mean that he/she has scored better than 90% of the candidates in the same exam. The same criterion is used for admissions in many other colleges and courses in India, like engineering and MBA.

Calendar guidelines released by UGC

• Admission processes for Undergraduate programs will commence only after the declaration of results by the CBSE, ICSE, and state boards.
• Admission procedure for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programs in online/offline/blended mode will be completed by 30th September 2021
• Commencement of classes for intermediate semester students to be as early as possible 
• Commencement of classes for first semester students will be done by 1st October 2021
• Commencement of the next academic session for this batch will be from 1st August 2022

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