DU students pushed into ‘unsafe’ PGs due to chronic on-campus hostel shortages

A survey of five Delhi University colleges revealed that they only have the capacity to house 4.7% of their combined strength on campus.

Paying guest (PG) accommodations have flourished around Delhi University (DU) colleges because of one increasingly scarce resource: affordable on-campus housing. With college hostels often unable to meet demand, students from across India are pushed into private accommodation, where rents are rising and their bargaining power is limited.

The site of a collapsed PG building in Delhi's Satya Niketan. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

HT sought consolidated data from DU on student enrolment and the number allotted on-campus accommodation, but received no response. Data obtained from five individual colleges, however, shows the scale of the gap: their official hostel capacities do not cover even 5% of their student strength.

Miranda House, Kirori Mal College (KMC), Hindu College, Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) and Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR) have around 6,000, 5,500, 4,500, 3,350 and 5,000 students, respectively. Their hostels accommodate only 360 girls, 180 boys, 170 girls, 280 students and 150 girls, respectively. This means that only 4.7% of the combined strength of these colleges can be housed in their hostels.

Students turn to private housing market

“The current hostel capacity is limited to around 360 with ₹4,911 as monthly rent, most students rely on private PGs,” said Miranda House principal Bijayalaxmi Nanda. The college, she said, is seeking approvals for a new facility that would add 150 beds, with priority for Persons with Disabilities and economically weaker students.

KMC principal Dinesh Khattar said the college plans to expand its hostel, which currently has 180 beds for boys. “Our college offers one of the most affordable hostel facilities within the University of Delhi, with annual charges of approximately ₹61,000, inclusive of development, electricity, mess, and water charges,” he said. The existing hostel has 90 rooms, with allotment based on merit.

At some colleges, even existing capacity is unavailable. Hansraj College’s hostel has been under construction for several months, while Ramjas College’s hostel has remained shut after being declared structurally unsafe.

“We had a hostel with a capacity of 180 students, but since it was built in the early 1950s, last year in 2025 it was declared structurally unsafe. So, that hostel has been closed for the past one and a half years,” said Ramjas principal Ajay Arora. The college has around 6,000 students a year and is preparing a proposal to expand hostel facilities.

DU vice-chancellor pushes for early accomodation

On Monday, the DU vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh held meeting with principals of all colleges and urged them to take students housing related matters on priority. Singh asked principals to fast-track the ongoing construction work to ensure that residential facilities are available to students at earliest.

“The VC requested the principals to review the residential facilities available for students in their respective colleges. Regarding existing hostels or any under-construction hostel projects, he urged them to expedite completion so that the facilities could be made available to students as soon as possible,” DU stated in an official statement dated September 7.

“He also asked the principals to explore the feasibility of constructing new hostels in their colleges and to prepare plans promptly if such possibilities exist. He advised them to initiate the construction process after assessing available space, government schemes, and all potential requirements and plans,” the university mentioned.

The shortage has helped drive the growth of so-called “student hubs” that have emerged catering to this very demand – GTB Nagar, Hudson Lane, Kamla Nagar, Roop Nagar, Satya Niketan, Malviya Nagar and Laxmi Nagar. And as demand rises, so do rents.

“In 2023, I found a twin-sharing room at ₹9,500 rent in Satya Niketan. In 2026, when I went to the same area with a friend who was looking for a place, the rent was hiked to ₹13,500,” said Snehojit Mitra, 22, a History Honours student at ARSD College.

Aditya Gaurav, a DU graduate preparing for a competitive exam, said a decent sharing room now costs around ₹15,000, while a single room can cost as much as ₹25,000. Older PGs offer cheaper options at around ₹10,000-12,000, he said, but students have little scope to negotiate.

“Irrespective of the room, one can’t bargain with the owners because there’s always someone else waiting to get that room,” Gaurav said.

A DU professor and chairman of the Indian National Teachers’ Congress (INTEC), said student numbers surged after OBC expansion in central higher educational institutions in 2008 and EWS reservation in 2019. While colleges expanded academic infrastructure to accommodate more students, hostel facilities did not keep pace. “The focus over the years has largely been on academic infrastructure expansion and upgradation,” he said.