DU cuts 8,000 seats but cannot explain it

DU officials put the number at 35,000 on Monday while announcing the admission schedule for 2007, reports Anuradha Mukherjee.

Has the number of seats for undergraduate courses at the Delhi University gone down? Officials put it at 35,000 on Monday while announcing the admission schedule for 2007. It was 43,000 till 2006.

The 8,000-seat drop could limit the number of seats for general category students to 27,000. University officials were unable to give reasons for the cut and struggled to find an explanation. Dean for students' welfare SK Vij said the discrepancy (the earlier figure of 43,000) could be due to a typing error.

"The 43,000 seats mentioned earlier included all DU seats, including UG, PG and professional courses. At the UG intake level, only 35,000 seats are available for non-professional courses in Science, Arts and Commerce. This year we asked colleges to tell us the number of seats they offer," said Vij.

However, he said the sanctioned capacity of colleges tends to fluctuate depending on institution and course. "This is a serious query and we must develop a mechanism to assess the actual number of seats in colleges," he added.

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