Science graduates will now have to take a three-hour test to find their way into DU classrooms beginning from the next academic session. The entrance test will cover all the science subjects, including Physics and Astro-Physics, Chemistry, Anthroplogy, Zoology, Botany and Geology.

The decision was taken unanimously by the university authorities who say the students presently enrolled at the Faculty are disinterested in pursuing studies further. Statistics bear them out: From a total of 180 students who enrolled for M.Sc Physics at DU, as many as 80 dropped out during the course. Only 100 of them took the final examinations last year. Those who had dropped out had either taken up jobs or are busy preparing for the Civil Services examinations.

An agitated Professor G.K. Chadha told Express Newsline,``It is the most depressing experience for a teacher to enter a classroom and have a hundred blank faces stare at him till the class is over. When I teach, I know the student in the classroom is thinking of the expected questions in the UPSC examinations. How can I teach a student the intricacies of nuclear physics or bio-chemistry when I know the only reason he is here is because he wants a hostel seat or a bus pass?''

The students, on the other hand, argue that a masters in a science subject does not have market value. ``The job market forces us to use the course as a stop-gap arrangement,'' says an M.Sc final-year student who is preparing for the preliminary examinations in May.

The teachers at the Faculty of Sciences believe the masters courses offered in science subjects attract the most ``dejected lot of students'', especially, those who have been rejected elsewhere.

Head of the Physics and Astro-Physics department Prof P.C. Jain said,``They are students who failed to make it to the high-profile MBA schools, engineering and medical colleges and are still trying to make it in the competitive examinations.''

The entrance examination, the authorities believe, will go a long way in helping the university choose interested candidates and eliminate the rest. Earlier, selection was made solely on the basis of marks obtained in the graduation examinations.

``We had to admit students from certain state boards as they obtained very high marks in their graduation examinations. However, selection on the basis of marks alone posed a problem as these students often failed to cope with the standard of the syllabus of the DU masters course. The entrance test should do away with such problems,'' argues a DU professor. The entrance test will include both multiple choice and problem solving questions. A merit list of the candidates will be prepared and selection made in accordance with it.