This year, Delhi University (DU) has implemented a Single Girl Child quota under its supernumerary category. This new initiative will allow single girl children to be admitted based on merit across all programs. The announcement was made during the launch of the Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS) admission portal by DU officials.
The admission process for DU will occur in two phases. The first phase is for registration, and the second phase will focus on seat allocation after the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) results are released. The CSAS portal will remain open for approximately a month.
Similar to last year, admissions to all programs will be determined by scores obtained in the CUET. For undergraduate applicants, DU is offering around 71,000 seats across 79 undergraduate programs and 183 BA program combinations in 69 colleges.
Registrar Vikas Gupta highlighted that the university would admit more students than the available seats to account for withdrawals later in the academic session. This year, DU plans to admit 20% more students in the general category and an additional 30% in the SC/ST and PwD categories.
In the CUET 2023-24, B.Com (Hons) and B.Com emerged as the most popular courses, attracting interest from over 1 lakh students each. This reflects a growing demand for these programs, consistent with trends from the previous year.
DU’s decision to admit more students aims to prevent the need for multiple mop-up rounds, which were necessary in the previous year to fill vacant seats. Last year, despite three rounds of admissions, including special and final spot rounds, approximately 1,000 seats remained unfilled in various undergraduate courses. To address this, DU had to conduct a mop-up admission round for shortlisted colleges and programs.
This new admission system marks a significant shift from the decades-old practice of admissions based on Class XII marks cutoffs. The entrance test-based admission process was adopted last year to ensure a more meritocratic selection of students. In 2021, the final year of cutoff-based admissions, ten programs across various colleges had set a 100% cutoff, prompting the university to transition to the CUET-based system.
With the introduction of the Single Girl Child quota and an enhanced admission process, DU aims to make its admissions more inclusive and efficient, ensuring a smooth and fair process for all applicants.