DU refutes prof ’s claims that Kerala students are being given preference

DU refutes prof ’s claims that Kerala students are being given preference

Shinjini.Ghosh@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:08.10.2021

Following a row over comments on students from a particular state board being given preference by Delhi University during admissions, a statement was issued by the varsity on Thursday refuting the same.

DU registrar Vikas Gupta said over 60,000 students had applied to the university under the first cutoff list out of which over 46,000 were from CBSE. At the end of the last day of approvals from college principals, applications of over 31,000 students from CBSE and 2,365 of students from Kerala Board of Higher Secondary Education were accepted, he added.

There were 1,540 students from Board of School Education, Haryana and 1,429 from Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations.

The remarks by DU professor Rakesh Kumar Pandey on the “inexplicable rush” of students from Kerala had drawn flak from several quarters. Students’ Federation of India and National Students Union of India announced that they would hold demonstrations at DU’s Arts Faculty and Kirori Mal College, respectively, on Friday.

Meanwhile, Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) had staged a sit-in protest on Wednesday stating that the high cutoffs had led to students from “only few state boards” being admitted to the varsity.

In the statement, Gupta said, “Being a central university, University of Delhi equally and uniformly values the academic credentials of all candidates irrespective of their states and school boards. This year, too, equal opportunity was maintained by accepting applications based on merit only.”

Refuting the claim of students from a particular state board being “favoured”, Gupta added, “Being a prestigious central university with a long legacy of quality teaching and research, candidates across the country aspire to study in our colleges, departments and centres. It is our utmost responsibility to maintain justice and equity to all meritorious candidates coming not only from Indian states, but also from abroad.”

Nuthan Kiron Raj, a former student of Hindu College and a member of Telangana Students’ Association, said, “Such a statement is derogatory and condemnable. It was a very biased and prejudiced statement. There can be faults in the grading system, but singling out a particular state is unjust. As we don’t have a common grading system throughout the country, there can be differentiated grades. But that doesn’t give anyone the right to give a distorted statement against a particular state.”