Tough Times Ahead For DU Aspirants? Colleges Likely To Set Higher Cut-Offs | Here's Why

DU Cut Off 2020: Delhi University has received over 2.8 lakh applications from CBSE students. St Stephen's College has released its first cut-off list for undergraduate courses and the highest cut-off goes high as 99.25 percent for BA (Hons) Economics course.

File Photo

New Delhi: Delhi University officials on Wednesday revealed that the cut-offs for admissions this year is going to be higher as many Class 12 CBSE students have scored 95 percent and above.  The university has received about 2,85,128 applications from CBSE students. St Stephen's College has released its first cut-off list for undergraduate courses and the highest cut-off goes high as 99.25 percent for BA (Hons) Economics course for students coming from the commerce stream. Last year, the cut-off for BA(Hons) English and BA (Hons) Economics courses was set at 98.75 percent for commerce students. This year, however, besides the cut-off for BA (Hons) Economics set at 99.25 percent, it is 98.75 percent for humanities and 98 percent for science students. The cut-off for BA English (Hons) is pegged at 99 percent for commerce students, 98.75 percent for science and humanities students. Making current year's cut-off higher by 0.25 percent for commerce and science students. According to experts, the high cut-offs of St Stephen's College has set a benchmark for other DU colleges, hinting that others will also follow suit in setting cut-offs on the higher side. Shobha Bagai, Dean (Admissions), DU, said, "The cut-offs are likely to be announced after October 12. We have sent the schedule to the administration. The administration is waiting for the UGC calendar. We should hopefully announce the schedule for cut-offs in this week." About the matter of high cut-offs, Ms. Bagai stated that it's not the university that is arbitrarily increasing the threshold. The cut-offs are determined by the number of applicants falling in the higher bracket with respect to the percentage obtained. Anju Srivastava, the principal of Hindu College, said, "St Stephen's has a lot of riders and restrictions in its hand but other colleges don't. If St Stephen's which also an interview component in admissions has kept the cut-offs high, I don't see why we won't do anything similar." Explaining the process, Ms. Srivastava said St Stephen's cut-offs provide a hint for other colleges and the cut-offs are not going to go any lower. "We cannot have riders like St Stephen's. The university wants to keep it simple. The number of high-scorers is high and to limit the admissions we have to keep the cut-offs high," Ms. Srivastava added. Manoj Khanna, the principal of Ramjas College, also supported the same rationale and said, "We will have to go by approximation. The cut-offs will be higher in the first and second lists than last year. There is a lot of unpredictability also. We cannot have over admissions considering we have to maintain social distancing also. Where will we make students sit if there are extra admissions? So cut-offs are bound to be higher". (With Agency Inputs) WATCH | Haryana: Experiment being conducted to reopen schools