Cotton University (CU) announced on Tuesday that students who lost their parents to Covid-19 would be accepted into undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) programmes.
Despite the fact that admission to the state’s top institution was nearly over in October, a notification from Cotton University (CU) academic registrar SK Dutta stated that such candidates will be admitted under a special provision.
Not certain about the number of applicants
Though Cotton University(CU) is unsure of the number of candidates for the Covid-19 quota, the notification stated that applications will be accepted in plain paper for a few seats for UG and PG first semester admission 2021-22, with a deadline of November 15.
“The application must be accompanied by a medical certificate mentioning Covid-19 infection as the cause of death of one of the parents of the candidate,” read the notice.
According to Dutta, the best students from the quota application would be chosen.
Around 1,200 seats in UG and PG were recently filled, but more seats under extracurricular activities and reserved quotas are on the way to being filled.
Six seats in UG courses, three each in BA and BSc, will be provided from the Covid-19 quota. According to Dutta, the number of seats for PG has still to be determined.
Opportunity for the students
During the second wave, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced a special scheme to provide Rs 2.5 lakh to women whose husbands had died as a result of Covid. However, there was no policy in place to help the students.
“When we are offering admission under various quotas within the extracurricular category, why not reserve a few seats for the students who lost their parents due to the pandemic? We can proudly say that it’s a unique initiative of our university,” Dutta said, giving credit to Cotton University VC, Bhabesh Chandra Goswami, for adding the new quota.
“Applicants who lost their parents during 2020 and 2021 are eligible for this quota,” stated a previous notice from the university.
These quotas will not apply to any self-financing undergraduate programmes or the BA in Liberal Arts.
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