Hundreds of UG seats vacant at DU off-campus colleges after 2 rounds of allocations

Off-campus colleges are those located outside the North and South Campus clusters, spread across the Capital and the NCR, while remaining fully affiliated with DU.

4 min readNew DelhiAug 5, 2026 05:28 AM IST

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Citing data from the university’s admission branch, he had said that in 2019, before the introduction of CUET, 68,213 undergraduate seats were filled against a sanctioned strength of 70,735, leaving 3.56% of the seats vacant.

After two rounds of seat allocations for undergraduate courses, hundreds of seats remain vacant in several Delhi University (DU) off-campus colleges even as the university’s most sought-after colleges have been able to fill their seats.

Off-campus colleges are those located outside the North and South Campus clusters, spread across the Capital and the NCR, while remaining fully affiliated with DU.

According to the list released for the third round under the Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS) for the 2026-27 academic session, Bhagini Nivedita College, one of the off-campus colleges, has more than 800 seats lying vacant. With over 600 vacant seats, Aditi Mahavidyalaya, another such college, follows. Satyawati College still has over 400 seats vacant while Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar College has over 300 yet to be filled.

Most vacancies, according to the data, are concentrated in the Other Backward Classes–Non-Creamy Layer (OBC-NCL), Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe and Economically Weaker Section (EWS) categories, while relatively few seats remain vacant in the unreserved category. The largest number of vacancies are concentrated in Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit and several BA programme combinations, involving language subjects.

The DU is staring at the trend of vacancies at off-campus colleges this year after acknowledging last year that it had failed to fill all undergraduate seats for the third consecutive year since adopting the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for admissions.

Top colleges saturated

According to DU’s admissions office, on Saturday, as of 7 pm, 34,507 candidates have frozen their seats. The latest vacancy list shows that Hansraj College, Kirori Mal College, Sri Venkateswara College, Ramjas College and Dyal Singh College—which figured among the six most preferred colleges during the beginning of this year’s admission process—are nearly full after two rounds of seat allocation.

At Dyal Singh College, which featured among the top six choices in the initial admissions trend, the remaining vacancies are largely confined to language courses such as Hindi, Sanskrit, Punjabi and Urdu. Several B A programme combinations with mainstream subjects, including Bengali and History and Bengali and Political Science, have already been filled.

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St Stephen’s College, Miranda House and Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) — despite not featuring among the six most preferred colleges in the initial preference trends — have also been nearly filled, according to the third-round vacancy list.

Last year’s vacancies

As of last September, more than 7,000 seats, out of the university’s 71,624 undergraduate seats remained vacant despite multiple rounds of allocations and mop-up admissions. The university had subsequently asked colleges to submit detailed course-wise vacancy data.

Defending the university’s centralised admission process earlier, Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh had said, “After CUET, the university’s admission process has become more logical, transparent and accountable with a centralised system. Now, every stakeholder is aware of the status of every seat. In DU’s CSAS admission system, every allocation is made public, for which a very scientific method is adopted.”

He had said that seat allocation is carried out solely on the basis of candidates’ CUET scores and the preferences submitted by them. Responding to criticism that CUET had resulted in a large number of vacant seats, Singh had argued that the trend existed even before the entrance examination was introduced.

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By contrast, he had said that under the CSAS in 2025, the university recorded 72,229 admissions against 71,642 sanctioned seats, amounting to admissions 0.65 per cent above the sanctioned strength. Singh had also pointed to instances where colleges admitted more than 200 students against a sanctioned strength of 11 seats under the earlier admission system, arguing that such over-admissions made it difficult to track and regulate actual enrolments.

On concerns that prolonged vacancies could eventually lead to the closure of certain courses, Singh had said that the university had advised colleges to revisit their seat matrices and suggest ways to fill seats that continue to remain vacant.

Vidheesha Kuntamalla

Vidheesha Kuntamalla is a Senior Correspondent at The Indian Express, based in New Delhi. She is known for her investigative reporting on higher education policy, international student immigration, and academic freedom on university campuses. Her work consistently connects policy decisions with lived realities, foregrounding how administrative actions, political pressure, and global shifts affect students, faculty, and institutions. Professional Profile Core Beat: Vidheesha covers education in Delhi and nationally, reporting on major public institutions including the University of Delhi (DU), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Jamia Millia Islamia, the IITs, and the IIMs. She also reports extensively on private and government schools in the National Capital Region. Prior to joining The Indian Express, she worked as a freelance journalist in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for over a year, covering politics, rural issues, women-centric issues, and social justice. Specialisation: She has developed a strong niche in reporting on the Indian student diaspora, particularly the challenges faced by Indian students and H-1B holders in the United States. Her work examines how geopolitical shifts, immigration policy changes, and campus politics impact global education mobility. She has also reported widely on: * Mental health crises and student suicides at IITs * Policy responses to campus mental health * Academic freedom and institutional clampdowns at JNU, South Asian University (SAU), and Delhi University * Curriculum and syllabus changes under the National Education Policy Her recent reporting has included deeply reported human stories on policy changes during the Trump administration and their consequences for Indian students and researchers in the US. Reporting Style Vidheesha is recognised for a human-centric approach to policy reporting, combining investigative depth with intimate storytelling. Her work often highlights the anxieties of students and faculty navigating bureaucratic uncertainty, legal precarity, and institutional pressure. She regularly works with court records, internal documents, official data, and disciplinary frameworks to expose structural challenges to academic freedom. Recent Notable Articles (Late 2024 & 2025) 1. Express Investigation Series JNU’s fault lines move from campus to court: University fights students and faculty (November 2025) An Indian Express investigation found that since 2011, JNU has appeared in over 600 cases before the Delhi High Court, filed by the administration, faculty, staff, students, and contractual workers across the tenures of three Vice-Chancellors. JNU’s legal wars with students and faculty pile up under 3 V-Cs | Rs 30-lakh fines chill campus dissent (November 2025) The report traced how steep monetary penalties — now codified in the Chief Proctor’s Office Manual — are reshaping dissent and disciplinary action on campus. 2. International Education & Immigration ‘Free for a day. Then came ICE’: Acquitted after 43 years, Indian-origin man faces deportation — to a country he has never known (October 2025) H-1B $100,000 entry fee explained: Who pays, who’s exempt, and what’s still unclear? (September 2025) Khammam to Dallas, Jhansi to Seattle — audacious journeys in pursuit of the American dream after H-1B visa fee hike (September 2025) What a proposed 15% cap on foreign admissions in the US could mean for Indian students (October 2025) Anxiety on campus after Trump says visas of pro-Palestinian protesters will be cancelled (January 2025) ‘I couldn’t believe it’: F-1 status of some Indian students restored after US reverses abrupt visa terminations (April 2025) 3. Academic Freedom & Policy Exclusive: South Asian University fires professor for ‘inciting students’ during stipend protests (September 2025) Exclusive: Ministry seeks explanation from JNU V-C for skipping Centre’s meet, views absence ‘seriously’ (July 2025) SAU rows after Noam Chomsky mentions PM Modi, Lankan scholar resigns, PhD student exits SAU A series of five stories examining shrinking academic freedom at South Asian University after global scholar Noam Chomsky referenced Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an academic interaction, triggering administrative unease and renewed debate over political speech, surveillance, and institutional autonomy on Indian campuses. 4. Mental Health on Campuses In post-pandemic years, counselling rooms at IITs are busier than ever; IIT-wise data shows why (August 2025) Campus suicides: IIT-Delhi panel flags toxic competition, caste bias, burnout (April 2025) 5. Delhi Schools These Delhi government school grads are now success stories. Here’s what worked — and what didn’t (February 2025) ‘Ma’am… may I share something?’ Growing up online and alone, why Delhi’s teens are reaching out (December 2025) ... Read More

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