Online DU applicants stymied

Glitches frustrate students

Delhi University’s online admission procedure was accompanied by glitches, such as overlapping text and login difficulties, claimed applicants.

This is the first time that DU has provided an online platform for students to apply for undergraduate courses with an aim to make the admission procedure student-friendly. The online medium is also providing centralised optical mark reader (OMR) forms.
However, applicants are harried over the technical issues.

“I tried to register and login for the first time but a ‘404 error’ occurred. I had to try several times to log in but unfortunately, I could not,” said Sakshi Bansal, a commerce student who scored 97.25 per cent in class 12 examination.

Sakshi said her friends also tried to create accounts through different computers but were not successful in accessing the forms.

Apoorv Jain, another applicant, alleged that the website is confusing. “The text on the website is overlapping, so whenever I clicked on some link I was directed to some other page.

Also, the image for the security code was not clear and I had to reload the page ten times to get the image. I have applied in 15 colleges but it took me the entire day to apply in just 10 colleges,” he said.

Some applicants complained of not being able to locate the link for the Extra Curricular Activity (ECA) quota.

Keshav Bansal, who scored 97 per cent and lives in Ghaziabad, said when he could not access details on the website he called the helpline number. “Someone on the other end of the line said there were issues on the website, so forms will be available after two or three days,” said Keshav.

DU officials rubbished these allegations. “There must be something wrong with the connection of applicants who could not get through,” said J M Khurana, dean of DU students’ welfare.

“We will not have got such brilliant number of online registrations and submissions if the website was not working properly. And helpline members were not instructed to inform that forms were delayed. This is false,” said Khurana.

Protest over form price

Over 50 Delhi University students held a protest march on Monday demanding reduction in the price of OMR forms. The protest was organised by National Students’ Union of India. Last year OMR forms were Rs 50 whereas this year they have doubled it charging Rs 100, said a protester.

“Recent years have witnessed a sharp increase in examination fees and regular tuition fees in the university. We demand immediate roll back of such hikes. Such hikes on forms are anti-student,” said another protester.