UG admissions delayed under DU SOL as varsity awaits UGC nod

Admissions to undergraduate courses under Delhi University's School of Open Learning (SOL) are once more caught in a delay this year as the varsity is waiting for UGC's go-ahead for launching the process. While DU has already completed the registrations for the 54,000 regular UG seats in its colleges, the admissions to SOL, which enrols over 1.4 lakh students, is facing a delay for the second year.

The admission process for SOL would customarily begin a few days after the opening of registration for the regular UG courses and used to run till late September. However, the schedule has been altered twice this year. The application process was initially supposed to begin on June 1, but that date was pushed to June 15. Now, even that deadline has passed and there has been no decision yet on when the process will get underway.

The DU administration said the delay is not at their end and that they are awaiting a directive from the University Grants Commission's Distance Education Board (DEB) to launch the SOL admission process. "UGC had last month asked all the open learning school universities to submit an affidavit to the board. We had submitted the details long before the deadline passed," said CS Dubey, Director, SOL. "So, the delay is not at our end. We are just waiting for a go-ahead from the UGC," he said, adding that the varsity is ready with its admission guidelines.

The official, meanwhile, informed that the application process for its 'B.Com Programme' and three of its honours courses -- English, Political Science and B.Com -- will be completely online. For its BA Programme, however, applications will be accepted both in online and offline mode.

The admission process at SOL was delayed last year as there was speculation that the three-year programmes will be converted into four-year degrees in order for them to be in sync with the now-defunct Four-Year Undergraduate Programme.