Experts in Chandigarh refuted the figures

Chandigarh: Though the figures indicate a drop, experts have claimed that the cut-off this year is as high as last year, given the classification of the New Education Policy (NEP 2020) for realising the provisional merit list for admissions to 11 local affiliated colleges. The Department of Higher Education (DHE) released the cut-off for both centralised and non-centralised courses late on Thursday evening. An estimated 16,000 seats were allotted on the basis of merit. The first online counselling for seats under the UT pool will be held on July 12 (from 10 am); counselling for seats outside the UT will be held on July 13 (from 10 am). The second online counselling session for the UT pool will be held on July 18 and for the outside UT pool on July 19. Talking about the reason behind the drop in ranking, Dr Ajay Sharma, Principal, GGDSD College, Sector 32, said, “With regard to admission cut-offs, there have been significant changes in the evaluation criteria as per NEP 2020. Earlier, four marks (each) were given to each commerce subject for admission to the BCom course, resulting in a total of 16 marks for all four subjects. However, now this weightage has been reduced from four to two, bringing down the total weightage for the four commerce subjects from 16 to eight. A similar pattern was followed for other courses as well.” While GGDSD College remained the first choice of toppers among private colleges, Sector 11 Postgraduate Government College remained the top choice among government colleges. “The highest marks recorded were 116.40 per cent (outside UT pool), while this year it has been 107.20 per cent. If you consider the NEP norms, the scores are even higher than last year,” said a professor from SGGS College, Sector 26. “For the UT pool, last time it was recorded at 114.98 per cent, while this year the cut-off is 106.74 per cent,” he added.