Patna: With admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate courses for the 2026-27 academic session nearing completion, Patna University (PU) has not allotted a single hostel seat to newly admitted students despite the availability of some vacant seats on campus, leaving many from rural areas and small towns scrambling for expensive private accommodation.However, the university officials said the process of allotting hostel seats will begin shortly. Students’ welfare dean Kameshwar Pandit said applications from needy UG and PG students would be invited through the Samarth portal within a week. Hostel superintendents have been asked to provide details of vacant seats in boys’ and girls’ hostels before fresh allotments are made.For students already attending classes, the situation has become increasingly difficult. “I have come from outside Patna and urgently need hostel accommodation. Staying in a private lodge is beyond my family’s means,” said Om Prakash, a newly admitted student of B N College.The shortage is significant. PU has around 20,000 students but hostel space for only about 3,500 across its 25 hostels. In the undergraduate segment, the crunch is particularly severe. Around 4,000 students have enrolled in the first semester of four-year degree programmes, while hostel capacity for UG students across semesters I to IV is estimated at about 2,500 seats.University officials said the introduction of the four-year undergraduate programme has further reduced vacancies, as students who would earlier have graduated after three years are now continuing into the fourth year.Students unable to secure hostel accommodation often turn to private lodges, where overcrowded rooms, inadequate facilities and high costs add to their difficulties. Rent and food expenses together can run into several thousand rupees a month.The issue has long sparked demands for expansion of hostel infrastructure. Academics said that with a large number of students coming from outside Patna, hostel accommodation has increasingly become a scarce privilege rather than a basic student facility.
