Best Practices

Fair and transparent admission process

The admission is in online mode through MIS. The students register themselves for admission to the parent university, i.e., Kumaun University, Nainital, and subsequently in the college website, too. The registered students, as per the merit list are given admission as per the fixed criteria, i.e., cut-off percentage, which again differs for the general and other students belonging to SC, ST, and other categories. Different committees look into their testimonials before finalizing their admissions. The list of cleared students is displayed on notice boards and the college website, so that the students may finally go in for the submission of admission fees, as final benchmark of being admitted into the college. The objectives thus are the following:

1. Admissions are carried out as per the merit of the student. The cut-off percentage for admission to science faculty (B. Sc and M. Sc) is 45 per cent, Arts (B. A, M. A and B. Com, M. Com) is 40 per cent,
2. All the criterions as relates to reservation of seats for SC, ST, and OBC, as well as students belonging to other state, primarily for Jammu and Kashmir students are duly carried as per the provisions defined. The reservation is fixed at 19 percent for SC, 4 percent for ST, 14 percent for OBC.
3. Admission to self-financed and vocational courses too are as per the merit.
4. Admission process is carried out within a fixed stipulated time frame, so that the actual classes could be conducted at the earliest, and thus the prescribed syllabi could be completed well before the scheduled date of the start of examination. 

The intended outcome of the present practice is to make the admission process fair and transparent, and that no deserving candidate is unjustifiably left out.

The admission process is an online process, and as emphasized above, the student seeking admission has to register himself in the parent university (Kumaun University, Nainital) and subsequently in the college website, too. Majority of the students do not possess the bare minimum expertise to undertake this exercise, and thus are completely dependent upon the outside sources, viz., cyber cafes, etc. this dependency very often than not is prone to exploitation. 

Even though, there are a number of colleges in the close vicinity of the present institute, there is an overwhelming tendency for students seeking admission in the present institute, which eventually results in creating pressure for college administration to undertake or conduct the admission exercise smoothly. The problem gets only accentuated when student political outfits and leaders, in the garb of doing ‘humanitarian good’ exerts pressure through holding Dharanas and agitation, which only prolongs and impedes upon the smooth functioning of the admission process. 

However, the major problem faced is when the admission seeker does not carry out his or her admission within the stipulated time frame post the display of the merit list (for which a definite time frame is executed by the admission committee), subsequently turns up demanding admission. 

Overwhelming admissions, as already emphasized above, had led to a burgeoning strength, which presently hovers more than 12,000. With the limited space, that includes the infrastructural support and limited space within the lecture theatres as well as the number of classrooms, necessitates that the classes are sub-divided into sections. This then results in more burden on the teaching faculty in terms of the number of classes he or she would take per day. To offshoot the problem, the college administration has mandated that additional classes would be taken- the evening classes, so that the needs of the students is optimally met out.  

Even though, there are a number of colleges in the close vicinity of the present institute, there is an overwhelming tendency for students seeking admission in the present institute, which eventually results in creating pressure for college administration to undertake or conduct the admission exercise smoothly. The problem gets only accentuated when student political outfits and leaders, in the garb of doing ‘humanitarian good’ exerts pressure through holding Dharanas and agitation, which only prolongs and impedes upon the smooth functioning of the admission process. However, the major problem faced is when the admission seeker does not carry out his or her admission within the stipulated time frame post the display of the merit list (for which a definite time frame is executed by the admission committee), subsequently turns up demanding admission. 

The evidence of success could be gauzed from the performance of the enrolled students in their respective examination. The pass percentage for the college as a whole is ………… a substantial percentage of the pass students again could be marked from the total number scoring first division marks, which is ……………. The number of students attaining ranks at the level of university, i.e., gold medallist, over the last years speaks for itself (refer Annexure).  Again, a substantial number of enrolled students are availing scholarship, primarily after qualifying the UGC-NET/JRF or CSIR-UGC NET/JRF examination (refer Annexure); as well as those numbers who are pursuing Ph. Ds in the college (refer Annexure). 

The prime problem faced by the institute is lack of space to create or construct more infrastructure. We have already exploitation to maximum the available space, and thus are no longer in a position to construct building to accommodate students or to fulfil their needs in terms of the classes undertaken. The only recourse left with the administration was to go in for undertaking classes in two-shifts, which we have done. Having emphasized this fact, being a government aided college, with a fixed bare minimum fee structure, and financial support extended by the government- all this falls short of actual amount or support base that could lead to augmentation of the infrastructural support base, in the form of requisite number of student chairs/study tables, requisite scientific instruments to conduct practicals, the recurring budgetary support for the renewal (say chemicals, maintenance of equipments, etc)- in numbers and amount that would fulfil the requirements of the enrolled students. While NAAC emphasizes upon the ICT-based teaching, the institution is trying hard to fulfil this obligatory requirement as teaching aids. 

Efforts should be made, as far as possible, to create a facility where students may prepare for their competitive exams, or even for the regular examination, in quiet, and comfortable, environment. Creation of such facility- a reading room does not take much financial cost, and any college- small or big can easily afford to create such a facility. If warranted this facility could even be extended for holding motivational talks, general talks or lectures on current topics of interest, or even for holding competitions, like debate, extempore, or group discussions. Establishment of a reading room, well equipped with reference texts (normally which are not distributed or lent to the students, because of their higher price) should invariably be made available to the students, or even the teaching faculty, thus.

i. Admission process is as per the merit of the students and is transparent through online mode, and making use of the MIS

ii. Faculty empowerment is very vivid. For example, the examination committee is mostly constituted of female faculty members. They are also being relegated to the task of actually managing the exams.

iii. Regular classes are undertaken, with the prescribed syllabi completely undertaken, well before their annual examinations.

iv. Most of the classes, are equipped with LCD projectors, and wall-mounted projection screens.

v. Students are encouraged to participate in different workshops, seminars, and other cultural events, including sports.

vi. The college Reading Hall is equipped with the latest material for the preparation for competitive exams.

vii. The research cell duly conducts the Pre-PhD coursework for the benefit of the enrolled research scholars.