NEW DELHI: Following the mop-up round of admissions, over 3,000 undergraduate seats remain vacant at various colleges under Delhi University (DU).
The trend of vacant seats has become increasingly common since the university shifted to a centralised entrance system for student selection.
Meanwhile, counselling for the second mop-up round has also started. Faculty members from different colleges attribute the issue to delays in the results of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) and technical issues related to the choice-filling process on the admission portal.
Before the implementation of the CUET in 2022, DU admitted students based on their Class XII scores. The university introduced the Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS) portal to facilitate centralised applications for multiple institutions and courses.
After the regular admission rounds, 4,759 seats were reported as vacant on the DU website. In late September, the university initiated the mop-up round, allowing candidates to apply based on their Class XII marks for the available seats.
Anoop Lather, DU’s public relations officer, confirmed that as of October 6 evening, colleges had admitted 1,137 students, who were required to pay fees by the following evening. DU has over 70,000 seats in UG regular courses in 69 colleges. In 2022 and 2023, nearly 5,000 and 7,000 seats remained vacant.
Abha Dev Habib, a Miranda House College faculty member, said that the university should return to marks-based admissions. The university had planned to start admissions in July, but it could start only in the last week of August.
Under the present CSAS, neither the student nor the college knows the cut-off for any course. Now each student has to mention a hierarchy of subject-cum-college preferences right at the outset and the system then allots a particular course at a college based on CUET scores and preferences.
DU announced the mop-up round 2 counselling schedule for all undergraduate programmes on its official website. Students willing to apply for DU UG admission 2024 can apply online. However, students who have participated in mop-up round 1 will not be able to participate in the mop-up round 2 counselling process.