DU Admissions 2019: No EWS option for MPhil/ PhD registration yet

Ten days after the Delhi University (DU) started its registration process for admission in MPhil and PhD courses, the option of Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category in these two courses is still not available on the varsity’s online admission portal.

The delay in adding the EWS option online has caused panic among aspirants looking to enrol in these research courses.

Delhi University had started the registration process for its MPhil and PhD on June 3. “It has been over 10 days now and I could not fill up the form because the EWS option is not available in the list of reserved categories. I have also tried to contact the admission office but have failed to get a proper response,” said Ankita Singh, 20, an MPhil aspirant.

In January, the Union government had cleared a 10% quota in government jobs and higher education institutes for those belonging to the EWS category. Following this, DU had facilitated a 10% increase in seats in all courses this year to accommodate EWS candidates in the general category.

Another student seeking to enrol in PhD in Hindi said that he has also been trying to fill up the admission form since last week. “Initially I thought that the EWS option was not visible while accessing the admission portal on mobile. But when I tried loggig from a desktop computer, I found that the option was unavailable tehre too,” said Sidhharth Kumar, 23, a resident of Vasant Kunj.

When contacted Sukanto Dutta, officer on special duty (admissions), said that the university will soon activate the option on the registration portal. “Unlike undergraduate and postgraduate courses, the MPhil and PhD courses do not have fixed strength of students. The number of admissions now depends on the availability of supervisors and slot as per the University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations of 2016. So, we are working on the modalities. The EWS category option for the MPhil and PhD registration will soon be made available,” he said.

Under the UGC regulations of 2016, there is a cap on the number of MPhil and PhD students a professor, associate professor and assistant professor can supervise. As per the rules, a professor at any given point of time cannot guide more than three M Phil and eight PhD scholars. An associate professor can guide a maximum of two MPhil and six PhD scholars and an assistant professor can take one MPhil and four PhD scholars under his supervision.