This year, universities and colleges in the national capital underwent a significant change to the admission and teaching process, with the implementation of a unified entrance exam and the adoption of the new national educational policy. Rather than employing the traditional methods of admitting students, universities have either partially or wholly adopted the Common University Entrance Test for the 2022-23 academic year. While the Delhi University typically accepted applications based on Class 12 scores, Jamia Millia Islamia and Jawaharlal Nehru University had their own respective entrance tests for undergraduate admissions.
This year, the CUET was held for the first time by the National Testing Agency, making it the second-biggest entrance test in India, following the JEE-Mains. Despite its popularity, with over 14.9 lakh applicants, the exam faced criticism due to last-minute changes in test centers, mass cancellations and postponements, and delayed timetables, which caused difficulty for the candidates.
In September, Delhi University opened an online platform for the enrolment of students in 79 undergraduate courses, spread across 67 of its colleges, departments and centres. JNU also held admissions to 10 undergraduate programs, mainly in their Bachelor of Arts (Honours) foreign language courses. Some universities, including Jamia Millia Islamia, partially followed the CUET process.
JMI accepted students for 10 different courses through a single common test. The other programmes were selected based on an examination conducted by the university. These 10 courses included BA (Hons.) in Turkish Language and Literature, Sanskrit, French and Francophone Studies, Spanish and Latin American Studies, History, Hindi and Economics, BSc in Biotechnology and Physics, and BVoc in Solar Energy.
This year, universities began to put the National Education Policy-2020 (NEP) into effect. This policy aims to revamp school and college education, including technical schooling, by stressing the importance of multilingualism and usage of Indian languages, as well as offering holistic and multidisciplinary educational pathways with multiple entry and exit options. It replaces the 1986 National Policy on Education (NPE), and has the goal of achieving full enrollment in pre-school to secondary school levels by 2030.
The Delhi University was the first central university to adopt the four-year undergraduate curriculum outlined in the NEP-2020. JMI and JNU have also implemented the policy. As the Covid situation improved in 2021, student groups held demonstrations in Delhi pushing for the return to offline teaching instead of online mode in prominent universities. The NEP-2020 aims to increase the number of students in higher education to 50% by 2025.
The closure of campuses for almost two years and the shift to virtual learning had resulted in a decline in the quality of education, with many lower-income and rural students not having access to the necessary devices for online learning. In February, universities in Delhi such as Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Jawaharlal Nehru University began to offer physical classes for undergraduate and postgraduate courses. The pandemic and CUET had caused the university’s academic calendar to be pushed back, leading to criticism.
Despite the college’s refusal to get rid of the interview process, DU declared that all admissions that went against the CUET regulations were “null and void”. In their letters, St Stephen’s stated that 85% of their admission decision would be based on the CUET scores and 15% on physical interviews for all applicants. This matter was brought to the Delhi High Court in September, who ordered St Stephen’s to abide by the university’s admission policy. The Supreme Court then refused to suspend the High Court’s ruling, thus ending the clash.
