In a bid to lessen the stress for the reserved category candidates, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided to give 5 per cent relaxation in marks for the entrances to PhD and MPhil courses at Delhi University. The interviews for the above programmes will begin from next week. As per the earlier rules, both general and reserved category candidates will have to score 50 per cent marks to secure their seats. The recent move came in after a large number of seats went vacant across the departments as many students could not score 50 per cent marks in the entrance exams. Further, in a few departments, no students from SC, ST and OBC were qualified for the interview. UGC to be Repealed? Centre Likely to Form New Commission For Higher Education. 

The order has been sent out on September 8 with the notice issued by the Chairperson of the Research Council States. It reads as quoted by the Hindustan Times, “A relaxation of 5 per cent of marks (from 50 per cent to 45 per cent) shall be allowed for candidates belonging to the SC/ST/OBC (non-creamy layers)/differently-abled categories in the entrance examination conducted by the university.” The notice further stated, “In spite of the above relaxation, if candidates from SC/ST/OBC or differently-abled categories are not available, the respective DRCs should explore suitable policies to fill most of the vacant seats keeping in mind the pool of candidates available from the National Level Tests and other categories as per Clause C, ordinance VI, dated August 9, 2017.”

In another, the research aspirants had said that even after the revision, the situation would remain the same. If the criteria are followed in some departments like Botany, Persian, Geology and Statistics, there will be no admission in MPhil under all the categories. According to a given instance in the same report, the MPhil entrance topper has scored 90 out of 196 marks. But to become an eligible candidate for the personal interview, a general candidate will now have to score a minimum of 98 marks and a reserved category candidate 88.2 marks.

In the Botany department, there will not be any admission this year, since no candidate scored the minimum qualifying marks. A general category candidate told HT, “The relaxation is for the reserved category only. What about the departments where even no one has qualified from the general category. We will soon start a fresh agitation.”

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 12, 2018 10:00 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).