New Delhi: There is sad news for Delhi University students who are looking forward to join innovative certificate courses from the University.

Each year, many DU colleges offer various short-term courses for freshers but this time, there are no such preparations made on account of upcoming reservations.

According to Rajendra Prasad, Principal, Ramjas College, "The main focus in our college currently is on accommodating the extra seats in all the courses available in the University. Since a lot of our resources will be filtered into creating not only large space for DU students but also increasing faculty strength, so have come to a conclusion to not to introduce any new courses in the upcoming year".

Colleges assert that increasing infrastructure and the faculty should be the priority before introducing new courses. According to senior faculty member of a north Campus, "Most of the short term courses use the services of teachers teaching inside the colleges. But if there is a sudden rise in regular courses then it will be difficult to let these teachers take up the courses at the cost of regular classes".

But for many students, these short-term courses are especially popular when offered by some of the popular colleges, such as, Hindu or St Stephens, as it permits them to be associated with these institutes, without making the grade on the merit-list.

On the other side, many premier DU colleges like SRCC have decided not to offer any short-term courses as it distracts their focus from the core courses. Says, PC Jain, principal, SRCC college, ''Short-term courses are not really worth following up as we believe that we can only offer what we can do well. That's why our college only offers regular courses.''