Two women’s colleges of Delhi University (DU) have begun admitting students on the basis of their Class 12 board results after nearly 2,000 seats remained vacant under the university’s centralised admission process through the Common University Entrance Test (CUET).The separate admission process at Aditi Mahavidyalaya in northwest Delhi’s Bawana and Bhagini Nivedita College (BNC) near Najafgarh, close to the Delhi-Haryana border, has brought into focus the difficulties faced by colleges that were established to serve students from rural and semi-urban areas but now operate within a university-wide admission system. Aditi Mahavidyalaya and BNC are around 31 km and 59 km, respectively, from DU’s North Campus.
In 2022, DU began admitting students through CUET under its Common Seat Allocation System portal. Since then, the two colleges have reported hundreds of vacant seats each year. Aditi Mahavidyalaya has filled no more than 40% of its seats, with around 1,000 seats vacant this year. BNC has 985 vacant seats, according to its admission prospectus. Last year, DU conducted a mop-up round based on board examination results to fill vacant seats across the university. While the authorities of the two colleges said they had been seeking a separate admission process since last year, for the first time, the university has allowed the two colleges to conduct admissions separately this year. “We granted permission for separate admissions because seats were not being filled. This is primarily because the colleges are on the outskirts,” a DU official said. Admissions are being conducted both online through the colleges’ websites and offline. Both colleges completed their first round of admissions on Friday and will begin the second round next week. Catering to the neighbourhood
