New Delhi: Over a month after the new academic session began at Delhi University (DU), around 7,000 seats remain unfilled, particularly in off-campus colleges. As a result, the university has launched a special drive to fill vacancies for a third consecutive year.
In 2023, around 6,000 seats remained vacant, and in 2024, approximately 3,000 seats were left unfilled.
Some teachers ThePrint spoke to blame the adoption of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) and the Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS) introduced in 2022 for the vacancies.
According to university data on the “mop-up round”, which will be based on Class 12 scores and will run until September 11, a majority of these vacancies are in off-campus colleges and those in rural areas.
At Bhagini Nivedita College in Najafgarh, for example, 700 out of 985 seats remain unfilled. Similarly, at Aditi Mahavidyalaya in Bawana, approximately 600 out of 1,000 seats are still vacant.
Similarly, Zakir Husain Delhi College, Kalindi College, Dyal Singh College, Bharati College and Shyam Lal College each have around 300–380 vacant seats, while Deshbandhu College has 295 unoccupied seats.
Teachers allege that many students take admission in private colleges and state-run universities before the CUET results are announced and the admission process begins, although there is no data to support this trend.
“Ever since the university administration adopted a centralised admission system based on CUET, the process has been unnecessarily prolonged each year, and seats still remain vacant. Even after multiple admission rounds, the mop-up round has now been launched. This clearly indicates there is a problem with the system,” says Rajesh Jha, a professor at DU’s Rajdhani College.
“Earlier, we used to complete the admission process by mid-August, but now it is still ongoing. Many students are not willing to wait this long—they don’t want to take a chance and end up enrolling elsewhere. We used to get seats filled within two or three cut offs earlier,” he adds.
ThePrint reached Delhi University’s dean of admissions, Haneet Gandhi, for comment via calls and messages but had not received a response by the time of publication. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
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Delhi University centralised admission system
Officials at many colleges with vacant seats tell ThePrint that the central admission process provision for upgradation—allowing a student to move to a higher-preference course or college if a seat becomes available—is responsible for the vacancies.
Earlier, colleges admitted students based solely on Class 12 scores, releasing their individual cut-offs and conducting their own admission processes.
Neelam Rathi, principal of Aditi Mahavidyalaya College, says the college received 750 admissions in the first round. “But when the second list was released, more than 500 students got upgraded and left the college, leaving only 250 students. Again, in the third list, more students were upgraded and left,” Rathi tells ThePrint.
“This is causing continuous vacancies in off-campus colleges like ours. Last year, many seats remained vacant in our college,” she adds.
Similarly, Vikas Chaudhary, admissions coordinator at Bhagini Nivedita College, says that in the first round of admissions, the college admitted 585 students against 985 available seats.
“In the second round, 350 students left, and 400 new admissions took place. In the following round, many students left again, and now we are left with only 285 students for 985 seats,” he tells ThePrint.
Chaudhary adds that although the previous admission system also allowed students to change colleges, the scale was much smaller.
“Earlier, there would be a drop of one to two percentage points in cut-offs; so only a few students would move from one college to another. Now, with the automated system, a large number of students get transferred. That’s why off-campus colleges like ours are being affected more,” he says.
Teachers at Dyal Singh College had a similar view. “The upgradation process continuously causes students to move from one college to another. But we don’t have vacant seats in popular courses like B.Com, political science and history, among others,” college admissions coordinator Rattandeep Kaur tells ThePrint.
‘Lack of awareness about CUET’
Several faculty members say a lack of awareness about CUET was also a factor. Aditi Mahavidyalaya’s principal, Neelam Rathi, says the college conducted outreach programmes in nearby government schools and found that very few students were aware of CUET.
She adds that the majority of their students earlier came from rural areas around Delhi. “However, the demographic has changed after the introduction of CUET. Government school students in the surrounding areas are often unaware of the exam, and many also lack the resources to compete. Earlier, they used to get admission based on Class 12 marks. We’re hoping to admit such students now under the mop-up round.”
Abha Dev Habib, Associate Professor at Miranda House, says that the mop-up rounds, which are based on Class 12 marks, highlight that many courses and colleges used to attract students from the local population. “CUET has become an unnecessary barrier that the local population is unwilling or unable to overcome. Students from outside may not be interested in these specific streams or colleges. The fact that a month of teaching has already passed might also be discouraging students from joining now,” she says.
Faculty members believe there is an urgent need to review the admissions process. A.K. Bhagi, former president of the Delhi University Teachers’ Association, says that colleges on the outskirts used to cater to the needs of local students and set cut-offs accordingly.
“There is no such localised approach now. It’s not necessary that all colleges cater to students from outside Delhi; the majority serve local students. There is a need to rethink these gaps,” he tells ThePrint.
Bhagi also suggests that the university conduct the first rounds of admissions through a centralised system and later hand it over to the colleges. “This will help colleges fill their seats while keeping local needs and demands in mind.”
Rajesh Jha also says the university should reconsider the process. “Even with CUET, colleges should be allowed to conduct their own admission processes. The centralised system should be done away with.”
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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