Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi B.A Review By Arun Rams

Overall, studying at Ambedkar University Delhi was an enriching experience. The most significant aspect of life at AUD, for me, was the importance given to political awareness. Unlike in the typical engineering college, students actively keep up to date with global politics, and are able to connect what they study in class to what is happening in the real world. This sensitivity extends to college societies, cultural events and protests as well. The down side of life at AUD, on the other hand, is that you will constantly have to fight the administration for basic student rights. Though AUD's faculty tend to be progressive - if a little elitist at times, the administration has a lot of issues with efficiency and transparency. Even something as simple as booking a room for an event requires a lot of paperwork. The process for joining AUD is quite simple; you just need to provide your basic educational details, along with your 12th exam scores. There is no entrance exam for BA programs.

At AUD, I did a BA in Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). This was a three-year-long program, set in the Kashmere Gate campus that let me minor in 3 disciplines instead of majoring in one. The disciplines in which I minored were history, political science and sociology. I also had some credits in English and psychology. Doing this program allowed me to develop an interdisciplinary perspective on real world affairs. Since graduation, I have worked in content writing, marketing, performance theatre, translation and sociological research. Cutoffs for BA SSH are high, albeit not as high as those for some other BA programs. However, the second and third cutoffs are usually reasonable.

The BA SSH program allows students to attend classes from any social science at AUD. We had access to every single faculty member from the history, sociology, economics, mathematics, psychology, political science, Hindi and English departments. All in all, I suppose that would mean we could study under ~100 potential professors. Pretty much every faculty member at AUD is an expert in their field, holding either a PhD or an MA/MPhil. Many of them have taught at leading universities in the West - including the University of London and the University of Warwick. Most classes at AUD are invigorating and challenging.

We have a training and placement cell that regularly provides us with job and internship offers via email. We have also had a few career fests involving startups, NGOs and businesses. I have not attended any myself, because I was never interested in working for a private business, but I receive emails from the placement cell almost every three days. Students pursuing MBA degrees tend to get the most easily placed in leading companies, but most people in AUD aren't interested in working with them anyway, so I don't know how to judge how much AUD contributes to the white collar work force. As far as I know, most of our alumni get involved in their own businesses, the social sector, the academia, journalism and research.

AUD does not have separate hostels for men and women. As of now, it only provides hostels for women. This is because the administration is still waiting for the permanent campus (based in Dheerpur) to be completed. As things stand, the current women's hostels have strict curfews, small living spaces and lots of moral policing - though part of this can be blamed on the fact that AUD shares hostels with the Indira Gandhi Delhi Technological University for Women. Food, on the other hand, is available for all students - AUD has a canteen with moderately affordable food, as well as a small snack shop that boasts different kinds of chai and chips.

AUD has three campuses, located in Kashmere Gate, Lodhian Road and Karampura. The ones at Kashmere Gate and Karampura are moderately large, though they share infrastructure with the Indira Gandhi Delhi Technological University for Women and another university respectively. The campuses have well-stocked libraries, medium-sized classrooms capable of seating 30-50 students, lawns, sports fields, tennis courts, auditoriums for public meetings, and beautiful graffiti art plastered on the walls. They also have first aid centre, stationery shops and canteens. I wish the campuses were larger and more organised, but I suppose the admin has little incentive to improve them, seeing as everyone is planning to move to the upcoming Dheerpur campus.

Overall, life in AUD Kashmere Gate is very chill. Students regularly play instruments, roam around beautiful parts of the campus and lounge in the lawns. College societies include The 90's Kids (theatre), Alankaar (music), DebSoc (debating), History, and Terra (environmentalism). AUD also has a queer collective, Dalit/Bahujan/Adivasi circle, and other groups that advocate political awareness. We routinely have public lectures, plays, music performances, protests, reading circles and other group activities on campus. The most awaited event in AUD is the annual fest, AUD@city, which happens on a different campus every year. I would strongly argue that AUD has contributed to my sense of self awareness, and pushed me closer towards the social sector.