Delhi University extends entries for Round 1 by a day, 71k+ seats taken so far

Students now have time till 12pm on Saturday to choose on Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS) whether they will accept the seat, accept and opt for the possibility of an upgrade in the next round of allotments, or forfeit the offer and drop out of the admission process.

Delhi University (DU) extended on Friday the last date for applicants to confirm the undergraduate seats they have been offered as part of a new online admissions process, with a little over 11% of the 80,164 slots going unconfirmed by 5pm, the original deadline.

Delhi University. (Amal KS/HT Photo)

Students now have time till 12pm on Saturday to choose on Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS) whether they will accept the seat, accept and opt for the possibility of an upgrade in the next round of allotments, or forfeit the offer and drop out of the admission process.

A little over 150,000 students applied for DU and of these, the highest 80,164 scorers were allotted all the available seats based on the courses and colleges they indicated preferences for. In the next round, students who do not accept their offers will be removed and others will move up to become eligible, and thus be assigned slots.

The extended deadline has meant that the last date for colleges to verify and approve applications too has been extended to Sunday afternoon and students can now complete the online payment by 5pm on Monday, the University announced.

By 7.30pm on Friday, 71,741 of the 80,164 seats offered under the first round were locked in. “Of the 71,741 accepted seats, colleges have started the verification and approval process for 54,395 candidates,” according to the data provided by the University.

This is the first time Delhi University is enrolling students on the basis of the common university entrance test (CUET) at the undergraduate level. Until last year, admissions took place on the basis of a student’s Class 12 performance.

Officials at several popular on-campus colleges said that a large number of seats have already been accepted by the candidates.

Hindu College principal Anju Srivastava said that as of Friday evening, 575 students have paid their fees. “We have a sanctioned strength of 952 students and they have cleared 985 cases with a handful of cases pending approval or verification as of Friday evening,” she said.

At Miranda House, 709 admissions were done with payment by Friday evening, the college admission committee announced.

Indraprastha College principal Rekha Sethi said the institution has, like others, accepted more students than the sanctioned strength. The college has 1,380 seats and 1,554 have been allocated, out of which 1,200 have been approved by the college. “About 320 acceptances came on Friday evening and we are processing it. We already have more acceptance than our sanctioned strength. It’s tough to say how the second round will play out but it seems that most admissions will close in the first round,” she said.

In Kirori Mal College (KMC), around 480 candidates paid the fees and the admissions of another 850 were approved by Friday evening. College admissions convenor Siddhartha Lahon said that the numbers will increase by Saturday. “We have to process 400 more forms by Saturday. We are expecting to fill more than 85% of our seats in the first round itself,” he said.

Officials at Ramjas College said that more than 900 admissions are expected to be done in the first round. “By 7:30 pm on Friday, 220 students have already submitted the fees and other applications are under process,” said college principal Manoj Khanna.

The University will open the window for “upgrade” for the second round of allocation at 5pm on Tuesday to 5pm on Thursday. “Only candidates who have secured admissions and paid the fees will be considered for upgradation for subsequent rounds,” the university said in a statement.

“Other candidates who have not been allocated a seat in the 1st round of CSAS shall be considered for the second round of CSAS subject to the availability of seats,” it added.