Admission to DU? Think again….

I was reading the newspaper the other day, and I came across an article which said the Delhi University Vice Chancellor had resigned in protest against the UGC recommendation to do away with the FYUP (Four Year Undergraduate Program) which was introduced just the previous year. To be very honest, it really didn’t bother me all that much. I actually thanked God that I am a graduate now and I am not going through the confusion and dilemma I am sure every student seeking admission to DU is feeling right now. I didn’t give a damn.

Cutoffs Chaos

But then, I did a double take. I shouldn’t be feeling this way, right? After all, when I was seeking admission to DU 3 years ago, the University had changed the rule and done away with OMR forms and instead, allowed students to seek admission only when colleges released the cut-offs. As a result, having no idea about the number of students who will seek admission to the University (since under this new rule, no college could refuse to give admission to any student who gets the requisite percentage and seeks admission to that particular college), the cutoffs were sky high. Having slogged through my entire 12th standard just so I could get my dream college in DU, I felt helpless when I didn’t get it even after getting 95%. And imagine my chagrin, when DU scrapped this rule the very next year and re-introduced OMR!! I felt wronged.

Real Image of DU

To be very honest, when the highly notorious FYUP was introduced, instead of sympathising, I felt a sort of savage pleasure, seeing the plight of the students. It felt like some sort of compensation to the “wrong” done to me. A very twisted way of seeking revenge, I admit.

After having spent 3 years of my life in DU, the illusion of it being an “excellent” university has worn off. Instead, I can see the real image and realise all that is wrong with it, and also say with a firm conviction that it cannot be fixed.

The thing to realise here is that DU is a highly proud and obnoxious entity. The casual way in which it flouted the UGC recommendations proves my point. You might bring reforms or you might overhaul the system and put in a new one, but when the problem is with the attitude, there is hardly any hope. DU is a proud and gullible person, who, having been flattered for years, starts to believe he can do anything and nobody has the power to take action against him.

Halfway Built DU Auditorium….

The reason that the university is giving, in defence of the FYUP, is that it is for the good of students. It will lead to a more wholesome education. After having been a student here, I laugh at this flimsy excuse for a reason. It is the pride of DU talking. Instead of correcting the faults in the existing system, DU chooses to turn a blind eye to them. Instead, it brings in a new system to explain its own incompetence! Tell me, dear authorities at DU, how will FYUP be any good with a lack of infrastructure, dearth of competent professors (or even the lazy attitude of the apparently experienced faculty) and a casual attitude to the student’s problems? It will, in fact, compound the already existing burden on the system. When I took admission to this “top” college of DU, its auditorium was halfway built. After 3 years, it is still halfway built. It will never be operational because due to lack of infrastructure, the college is forced to hold classes there! Please, first address these issues which have been plaguing you for years, dear DU.

Clouds of Uncertainty……

Some people might think I am ranting. They are right. I AM complaining. Why should I not?? I am a victim to the decadence of this apparently “glorious” university, and I feel helpless because no one is able to do anything against this “mighty” entity. As thousands of students face uncertainty with regards to their future as the university, like a petulant child adamantly refuses to see its own folly, I cannot help but feel only despair because I know there is no hope. Even if, by some miracle, FYUP is overhauled, the university will find a way to somehow win, because DU always gets what it wants. And we all are just collateral damage.