Admission impossible

Between CUET and procedures like those employed by DU, getting into college is stress test on steroids 

India is in the middle of the annual harassment of students and parents – aka college admissions. Stressful in the best of education systems, in India the supply-demand mismatch between good colleges and good students makes it worse. And since 2022, CUET has added a cruel twist. It is the unified admission test for over 250 universities. But it remains a cure worse than the disease – this year, too, not only was there a shocking delay in publication of CUET results, the exam itself was marked by faulty answer keys and technical glitches, as well as venue choices that seemed to be aimed at punishing examinees. National Testing Agency, which conducts CUET-UG, should sit for an exam, and answer why even after four attempts, the end result is still a nightmare. 

But this is only one part of the ordeal for students and parents. The labyrinthian admission process – particularly at prestigious institutes like Delhi University – makes getting reasonable quality education a matter of luck and acute digital acumen. For example, DU’s Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS) requires applicants to upload their details, navigate a complicated subject mapping exercise, input their preferences based on course and college combinations, and then let an algorithm do the allocation of seats. 

Naturally, professional coaching institutes have stepped in to “guide applicants”, for a fee. There’s now a CSAS form-filing ecosystem. Clearly, the admission system is skewed against those who are not digitally savvy or who come from modest economic backgrounds. Considering that 2.39L applicants completed DU’s second-phase admission process, getting the course you want is a game of  gargantuan odds. No major country puts its young through such stress just when they are making one of the most consequential decisions of their life. And no one, of course, will be held accountable.

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