Delhi University (DU) ended its registration window on Saturday and around 20,000 fewer applications were submitted this year according to university officials.
The DU portal saw a total of 3,67,895 registrations of whom 2,58,388 candidates actually proceeded and made payment. Total number of seats to be occupied in various courses is around 62,000.
Humanities courses became the most sought after undergraduate course at DU with BA (Hons) English drawing the maximum number of applications this year. Other courses that closely followed are BA(Hons) Political Science , BA, BA (Hons) Economics.
Two probable reasons pointed put by the offcials that resulted in drop in number of DU applicants are new system for registration, delay and confusion in the admission process and loss of rank in the national institutional ranking framework (NIRF)
The DU admission process was extended on the orders of the high court that heard three petitions challenging DU’s recently amended eligibility criteria for admissions for several UG courses including BCom (Hons) and BA(Hons) Economics. The court has also ordered the university to allow students to apply for admission to UG courses based on the eligibility criteria of 2018-19.
While 278,544 candidates had applied last year for the undergraduate courses, 258,388 applicants registered this year between May 30 to June 22.
The maximum number of applications, 1,11,433, have been received from students from the national capital, followed by Uttar Pradesh (49,009) and Haryana 34,501.
Other states that figured in the top five are Bihar and Rajasthan with 15,120 and 9,897 applications respectively, followed by Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala and West Bengal.