Education / DU to hold common entrance test for undergrad courses from next year

New Delhi: Delhi University is set to adopt a common entrance test for undergraduate admissions from 2022 after the Executive Council gave the green light on Friday.

This proposal was already passed by the Academic Council in its meeting held on December 10. Sixteen members of the Academic Council and two Executive Council members dissented against it on Friday. According to a senior university official, the administration will now begin working on the modality of the examination.

This involves taking a call on whether the entrance exam will be internally conducted by DU or by an external agency, or whether this involves adopting the Central Universities Common Entrance Test. The committee recommendations approved by the University’s decision making bodies also do not propose whether an entrance will have full or partial weightage for admissions.

The Executive Council has also approved paid maternity leave for ad hoc teachers and contractual staff, which had been a long-standing demand among the university’s ad hoc faculty body. It has approved the recommendations of a five-member committee constituted earlier this year to make suggestions on this issue.

“The Committee notes that ad hoc/contractual women teaching and non-teaching employees are engaged for a fixed term, paid maternity leave may be granted to such employees of the University/Colleges for a maximum period of 26 weeks within the specified time of such fixed term engagement,” its report stated.

Also sanctioned by the Council was a proposal for payment of honorariums and extending other facilities to overseas adjunct faculty members. Both the Academic and Executive Councils in their meetings in August had approved the recommendation for empanelment of Adjunct Faculty for “value addition” and “internationalisation of the academic activities”. The EC approved the Committee for Empanelment of Adjunct Faculty’s recommendation proposal which includes payment of monthly honorarium to a maximum of Rs 80,000; cost of air travel in economy class, medical insurance expenses for the period of stay in India, local travel expenses, as per actuals, and free lodging and boarding in the University’s International Guest House.