Delhi University (DU) will utilize Class XII marks to fill any remaining vacant seats after the completion of regular admission rounds, as announced by Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh on Thursday. This decision follows the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) directive for Central Universities to ensure all seats in undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) courses are filled. The UGC emphasized the importance of filling all seats, stating that leaving them vacant for an entire academic year not only wastes resources but also denies many deserving students access to quality higher education.
Responding to the UGC directive, Yogesh Singh expressed the university’s commitment to filling all available seats. He stated, “We welcome the directive by UGC. We are equally sensitive to the fact that seats in any course should not remain vacant. We will use Class XII marks to fill the vacant seats in UG programs.” Last year, approximately 5000 seats remained unfilled at DU despite the university employing various methods to maximize enrollment.
The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued by the UGC outlines that universities can conduct their own entrance exams for UG and PG courses if seats remain vacant after the regular admission rounds. However, Singh clarified that DU will not be holding an entrance exam but will utilize alternative methods to ensure full occupancy.
The admission process for the 2024-25 academic year is ongoing. Delhi University offers over 71,000 seats across more than 65 colleges through the Common University Entrance Test Undergraduate (CUET UG). The university’s current admissions process commenced on May 28 with the first phase, witnessing around 270,000 students registering on the Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS) portal. However, the start of the second phase of the admission process has been delayed due to the postponement of the CUET UG results. The university plans to proceed swiftly with the admission process once the results are released, aiming to fill all available seats promptly.
The UGC guidelines emphasize that CUET scores will remain the primary criteria for admitting students to central universities. However, students who participated in CUET but may not have applied to the respective university for specific courses or programs can also be considered. Additionally, universities have the option to conduct entrance examinations at their level or have the concerned department conduct screening tests to fill vacant seats. This option is available even after exhausting the list of applicants who participated in CUET. Furthermore, the SOP allows universities to consider students who appeared in CUET regardless of the domain subject papers they took, granting them flexibility to relax subject-specific criteria for admission to particular courses or programs.
