Thousands of orphan children, including those who lost their parents to COVID-19, will get an opportunity to pursue higher education free of cost in Delhi University, under its new initiative to reserve seats for them, Yogesh Singh, Vice Chancellor, DU, said.
He added that the university has been responsible for providing education to the students seeking higher education without any discrimination on any grounds.
Delhi University recently decided to reserve seats in each of its undergraduate and postgraduate programmes for orphans under supernumerary quota from the next academic year. Such students will also be exempted from payment of any kind of fees, the VC said.
The decision was taken in a meeting of the Executive Council on Friday. “The initiative will help thousands of children every year. We are coming out of Covid. Many children lost their parents during the pandemic. The initiative will also help those students,” Singh said.
The expenditure incurred for the admission and continuation of studies of such students in the university or its colleges will be met from the University Welfare Fund or the College Students’ Welfare Fund.
The vice chancellor said this initiative would be a positive step towards the achievement of 50% gross enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education by the year 2035 as envisaged in the National Education Policy 2020 and would link the ongoing efforts with its Institutional Social Responsibility (ISR) in the centenary year of the university.
With inputs from PTI