First day of admissions at DU marred by confusion

New Delhi: The University of Delhi's (DU) maiden attempt to make the entire admission process totally online was marred by confusion and chaos on Thursday as the admission seekers were clueless about the procedure to select the college.

DU's website crashed early morning itself, making hapless and panicky aspirants to run to various colleges to seek alternative options.

This is for the first time that the university has introduced full-fledged online admission procedure for admissions where the aspirants had to select the course and college online.

Under the newly introduced format, the applicants had to then log on to the college portal to generate an admission slip and approach their respective colleges with the slip and other documents.

The campus wore a near deserted look as compared with previous admission seasons. 

Colleges' authorities, however, maintained there was always a low turnout on the first day of admissions.

"It's just the first day of admissions. The cut-off came on Wednesday night only. That's the story every year. The turnout will increase on the second and third day," Dr Rama Sharma, Principal of Hansraj College, told IANS.

At Hansraj and Sri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), many admission seekers could be seen as against other colleges on the campus.

Reports suggested that SRCC enrolled over 40 students on the very first day of the admissions while at Hansraj 12 students applied in science courses and eight for arts and commerce.

At Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Khalsa College, 15 students completed their admission formalities while at the Venkateshwara College on South campus only five students enrolled in various streams.

At the SGTB college, many specially-abled students came to take admissions.

"We have only one seat for Hindi Honours but since we have about 7-8 eligible candidates for the course, we will be most happy to welcome them in our college," Khalsa College Prinicipal Jaswinder Singh said.

Meanwhile, Delhi University Teachers' Associations (DUTA) call to boycott admissions also affected the process to some extent as the teachers were not available in many colleges for counselling.

In most colleges, non-academic staff handled the admission process.

However, in colleges like the SRCC and Hansraj, teachers worked voluntarily to help admission seekers clear their doubts.

"We are with DUTA; they are raising valid demands. But the admission process has to continue. As a mark of protest and show our solidarity with DUTA, we have tied black bands on our arms," said a professor at SRCC requesting anonymity.

Similarly, at Hansraj College, the teachers helped students who came to seek admissions.

"The admission seekers came from very far-off places; we had to help them with their queries," a convenor for admissions at Hansraj College told IANS.