Colleges and cut offs

It is time for admission to colleges. Delhi University introduced common admission form for its colleges and allowed colleges to fix cut-off percentages. Sri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) fixed 100% as cut-off percentage. Some have criticised it. P. C. Jain, principal of SRCC, defended it. Science students who do not get admission in SRCC can go to IIT or IIM. Best way to do away with stress is to have no marks, no examinations and no evaluations and have lottery to select students.

Some other colleges had cut-off percentages in the range of 95%-99%. Students who do not get admission in the first list may get admission in subsequent lists.

Some years back it was difficult to score 100 marks. Now with objective type questions it is possible for students to score 100% marks. In any major city good colleges are few and students who want admissions in them are many times more than seats available and hence cut-off percentages are high in such colleges.

The problem in Delhi gets magnified due to media presence. Problems of students in other cities do not get prominence.

If science students with 97% marks or less want to switch to commerce they should go to a college where admission is available instead of demanding they be given admission in place of commerce students who have got 100% marks. Arts and commerce students cannot switch to science. Those who did not study biology in junior college cannot get admission in medical colleges. To get admission to engineering college one should have studied science in junior college. The argument that students are not able to make their minds at junior college level and those who took science in junior college should be able to get admission to B.Com in a college of their choice at a percentage less than that of commerce students is wrong.

The problem of admissions would have been more serious if there had been grade system with students who would have got 91%-100% marks being in A grade. For one seat there may be more than 100 applicants with A grade and rejections could result in riots.

One solution is to have colleges with online classes. Lectures can be webcast and students can attend them at home. Another solution is to have classes in stadia with protection from sun and rain. Students can have swipe cards to mark attendance. Biometric system is better. What lecturer writes on blackboard can be shown on giant screens.