Journalism course in DU flooded with nearly 60,000 applications

Delhi University has recently published its first cut-off list of marks for admissions in various undergraduate courses. Along with the rocket-high cut-off figures, the sought after courses at Delhi University have also thrown up some surprise this year.

Journalism till last year, not so popular courses in Delhi University has come into the league of most popular undergraduate courses, which continues to be dominated by conventional courses such as English, economics and commerce. As many as 59,583 students have applied for this course, a giant rise from last year’s 2,200 number.

The experts believe the sudden surge might be because of two reasons. First, the entrance test that formed the basis for admission to the course was not there this year because of short of time. On the other hand, aspirants used common form to application for the courses ordinarily closed in May, well before the application form for the other undergraduate courses came out “Only those who were actually interested would apply. The rest would not even come to know that the forms were out as they were not serious applicants. This year, many students listed journalism as their second or third choice as the form was common.” The above information was given by a teacher at Lady Shri Ram College. LSR is one among those six colleges which offers courses with just 250 seats between them.

Second reason is that journalism is professional course with defined future path and job prospects and students from all streams can apply for this. A teacher at Maharaja Agrasen College said, “The large number of applicants for journalism has shocked us. It is also the reason why the cut-off for the course has gone so high.”