SOL students deprived of Delhi University placement facility

New Delhi: The School of Open Learning (SOL), which is operating since more than five decades in the Delhi University, has been catering to the needs of lakhs of students every year, who have been left out from the full time study at colleges.

However, those who register with the SOL do so with the hope of getting a valid degree through distance learning are not only deprived of the varsity’s central placement cell (CPC), but also have to wait for an academic year to enroll for post-graduate courses.

According to a reply to an RTI application filed by law student Vikas Bhaskar, there is a clear absence of an evaluation mechanism, which hampers publication of final-year results.

“The admission process for post-graduate and other courses requires the final submission of undergraduate results by August of the same academic year,” Mohit K. Gupta, a law student, said.

“However, the SOL students having their result declared post that period are unfortunately deprived of enrolling in such courses. I wasted one year due to the delayed declaration of results and was devoid of confidential result as many of us don’t know much about this,”  he added.

Based on the data obtained from the RTIs filed, around 1,53,124 final-year students of B.A and B.Com courses would be deprived of getting into a post-graduate programme this year, the SOL said in a response to the RTI application.

It also accepted that the results for undergraduate and post-graduate courses were declared in October/November and the same has been the practice in the previous years too.

“It is unfortunate that a candidate qualifying for DU’s LLB entrance exam doesn’t get admission if he is waiting for SOL UG results,” Mr Bhaskar said.  

“The fortunate students, however, approach the high court and get justice, with the university being a mute spectator,” he added.

“This policy is a deterrence against further pursuit of academics by the students,” said advocate Shashi.