Delhi University Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh on Saturday stated that thousands of orphan children, including those who lost their parents to Covid-19, will get an opportunity to pursue higher education free of cost with the university's new initiative to reserve seats for them.
The vice chancellor said the university has been responsible for providing education to the students seeking higher education without any discrimination on any grounds.
The varsity recently decided to reserve seats in each of its undergraduate and postgraduate programmes for orphans under the supernumerary quota from the next academic year.
Such students will also be exempted from payment of any kind of fees, he said.
The decision was taken in a meeting of the Executive Council on Friday.
Speaking to PTI, Vice Chancellor Singh said, "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."
In all colleges and departments of the university, one seat each will be reserved for orphan boys and girls in all classes at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
"The University of Delhi understands the importance of providing higher education to every section of society, including those students who have unfortunately lost their parents and become orphans," he 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 a 50 per cent 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.