New Delhi: Delhi University has 13,433 undergraduate seats vacant across 67 colleges, with B.A. (Hons.) Hindi accounting for the largest course-wise vacancy at 1,455 seats, according to an analysis of the university’s spot round vacancy data released on August 23.
B.Com. has the second-highest number of vacant seats at 937, followed by B.A. (Hons.) Sanskrit with 911. B.Sc. (Prog.) Physical Science with Chemistry has 728 vacant seats, while B.Sc. (Hons.) Mathematics has 560.
The university’s spot round vacancy list covers 1,160 college-programme combinations across 67 colleges and was released on August 23 at 1 pm. DU has noted that the vacancy figures can change following reconciliation, withdrawals and grievance redressal.
The vacancy data comes as DU has issued three public notices this week, on August 20, 21 and 23, allowing admissions based on Class XII marks instead of CUET scores for select programmes at 31 colleges.
Of the 13,433 vacant seats, 9,628, or 71.7%, are in these 31 colleges.
DU has required CUET for undergraduate admissions since 2022. The three notices do not state why the university has opened the Class XII marks-based route this year or whether a similar route will be offered in subsequent admission cycles.
Candidates who already hold admission in any DU college are not eligible to use the Class XII marks-based route.
Hindi, B.Com. and Sanskrit lead course-wise vacancies
B.A. (Hons.) Hindi has the largest vacancy pool among individual programmes, with 1,455 seats remaining vacant across DU colleges.
B.Com. follows with 937 vacant seats, while B.A. (Hons.) Sanskrit has 911.
Other programmes with substantial vacancies include B.Sc. (Prog.) Physical Science with Chemistry, with 728 seats, and B.Sc. (Hons.) Mathematics, with 560 seats.
The vacancy concentration is spread across several programmes for which DU has opened the Class XII marks-based admission route, including Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu, Punjabi, Persian, Bengali and Home Science, along with some science programmes.
Bhagini Nivedita has highest college-wise vacancies
Bhagini Nivedita College (W) has the highest number of vacant seats among individual colleges, with 843, followed by Swami Shardhanand College with 773 and Aditi Mahavidyalaya (W) with 650.
Shyama Prasad Mukherji College for Women has 467 vacant seats, while Kalindi College has 464, completing the top five. At Bhagini Nivedita College, vacancies include 106 seats in B.A. (History + Political Science) and 98 in B.Com.
At Swami Shardhanand College, B.Com. accounts for 145 vacant seats, the highest vacancy for a single programme at an individual college in the dataset.
31 colleges account for nearly three-fourths of vacancies
The overlap between DU’s vacant-seat list and its three Class XII marks-based admission notices is significant.
Of the 67 colleges in the spot round vacancy list, 31 also appear in one or more of the three notices issued this week. Together, these colleges account for 9,628 of the 13,433 vacant seats, or 71.7% of the total.
The colleges named in the notices include Kalindi College, Rajdhani College, Sri Guru Nanak Dev Khalsa College and Gargi College, among others.
However, the data does not establish whether the concentration of vacancies in these colleges was the reason DU decided to open the Class XII marks-based admission route.
Minority colleges show concentration in respective categories
The vacancy data also shows a high concentration of vacant seats in the respective minority categories at several minority institutions.
At Mata Sundri College for Women, 361 of its 384 vacant seats, or 94%, are listed under the Sikh category. At Jesus & Mary College, 279 of 291 vacant seats, or 96%, are in the Christian category.
Similarly, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College has 97 of its 117 vacant seats, or 83%, listed under the Sikh category, while St Stephen’s College has 37 of 44 vacant seats, or 84%, under the Christian category.
At Mata Sundri College, B.A. (Hons.) Political Science alone has 46 vacant Sikh-category seats, with no vacancies shown in the other categories for that programme.
Mata Sundri College for Women and Sri Guru Nanak Dev Khalsa College also feature in the Class XII marks-based admission notices issued this week, covering programmes including B.Sc. (Hons.) Mathematics, B.A. (Hons.) Punjabi and B.A. (Hons.) Hindi Patrakarita.
The data, however, does not establish a link between the concentration of minority-category vacancies and DU’s decision to open the Class XII marks-based admission route. Factors such as the size of the eligible applicant pool and programme-specific admission patterns could also contribute.
