New Delhi:
Long queues at colleges marked the opening day of admissions to Delhi University's four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP).
The university has 54,000 seats for the FYUP programme and has 77 colleges affiliated to it.
But with students scoring high in the Class 12 examinations, cut-offs are expected to soar.
Adding to the intense competition for seats is the confusion and skepticism surrounding the centralized forms, which are available online as well as at 18 designated DU centres. The optical mark recognition (OMR) forms, as they are known, are applicable for all colleges excepting St. Stephen's and Jesus & Mary College which have their own admission process and only accept online forms. But with the university's website crashing on Sunday night, most students rushed to the admission centres to collect forms.
"We had to study so hard to get 91%... now this complicated system. There are long, long lines to collect the form, then the forms are confusing," said Tanisha Garg.
"We are not comfortable with online mode as it is new... better to come and do this ourselves," said Priya Rani, another student.
The last day for filling forms is June 16 while the first cut-off list will be released on June 24.
The University has, in another major setback for students, also decided to deduct 2 per cent from the overall score should one decide to switch streams while seeking admission to a course, considered a common practice.
The National Students' Union of India or NSUI, the students' wing of the Congress, staged protests, demanding better management of the admission process. Meanwhile, another set of protests by the Left-backed All India Students Association (AISA) saw it demanding the rollback of the four-year undergraduate programme, which was introduced last year amid much resistance by teachers, students and parents alike.