The Hindu : New Delhi News : Private firm roped in to process DU admissions forms

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 12, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Private firm roped in to process DU admissions forms

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JUNE 11. Designed to make the admission process more student-friendly, Delhi University's much talked about ICR forms have actually turned out to be college-friendly too, albeit for reasons that have left even the colleges concerned surprised and wondering.

Even as the race for the newly introduced ICR forms continues at the 12 information centres set up across the Capital, colleges this year have recorded a huge increase in the sale of their prospectuses and forms -- a clear indication of the uncertainty and doubt lingering in the minds of students applying to various colleges here.

With both the University and colleges advising students to apply on college forms in case of doubt, most colleges have almost doubled their sales from last year. Take Hans Raj College, for instance, which sold 12,000 college forms last year, but has already sold about 22,000 forms this year, and that too with a week still to go before admissions come to a close. The sale at Sri Venkateswara College has seen a jump from last year's 8,000 to about 11,700 forms till now.

And such is the increase that at least six colleges have sought the help of private company Voytech Pvt Ltd to process the forms for them. Colleges feel the increase has been mostly because of the uncertainty surrounding the ICR forms and the constant appeal of colleges asking students to fill college forms even if they are submitting the ICR ones. "The sales of college forms has been unimaginable this time round, and we still have some more days to go before the final figures can be arrived at. We had not expected such a big increase, but then students probably wanted to be a little safe by applying both ways," is the Sri Venkateswara College Principal, Dr. A.S. Reddy's explanation for the rise. Unlike the past, when centralised forms were popular due to their price and easy availability, the ICR forms have had students adopt the cautious way out this time. But colleges are not exactly celebrating the flow of the extra money.

"Most colleges have recorded a rise in the sale of forms this year, which is good. But the problem is this would also lead to a lot of duplication since a number of these students have also filled the ICR forms. It would mean that we have to be extra careful while getting the forms processed," feels the Hans Raj College Principal, S. Arora.

And this is probably where the private company Voytech Pvt Ltd was roped in. Till now know for its controversial involvement in helping students fill up the ICR form - an initiative that has not gone down too well with the University - the company will now help six colleges by processing the college forms for them and devising a way to avoid duplication of figures due to the ICR forms.

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