The committee on the undergraduate admission policy at Delhi University has received a suggestion on capping the number of times a student can change the choice of course and college. The recommendation has been made by the college principals who are special invitees to the committee as, they have argued, repeated withdrawals create procedural problems and slow down the admission process. Depending on a cutoff, students now take admission to a course and the college. But they have the right to withdraw if in a subsequent list, they qualify for some other college or course. “Often applicants change multiple colleges.
So we do not know the exact number of applicants for days. Figuring out the subsequent cutoffs also becomes difficult,” said a committee member. The administrative functionaries also don’t get enough time to verify the documents, he added. Echoing him, a principal at a North Campus college said, “If there is a limit, students will take admission to the course and the college they actually want to rather than just for blocking a seat.”
A similar suggestion was made in January when DU conducted an anonymous survey for teachers on its website. Some complained that the process got delayed because of multiple changes. “Students often give in to peer pressure and change colleges multiple times,” a teacher had said.
However, students called the suggestion unfair. “With so much competition in DU, it becomes essential to at least block a seat in a course wherever possible,” said Rajshri Rai, a first-year student of Miranda House. “The university should instead make the process easy,” said Rai, who had changed her college thrice
