Nearly 2 lakh apply to DU in four days; online admission still a worry for many

NEW DELHI: With the Delhi University taking its entire admission procedure online from application to document verification and open houses for the 2020-21 session, nearly 2 lakh aspiring students have now applied on the registration portal, of which more than 1,31,710 have applied for undergraduate courses to fill the coveted 62,000 seats available this year. In comparison, a total of nearly 2.5 lakh applications were received for the previous year's session. A total of 1.81 lakh students have applied through the portal as of Wednesday morning.

Within a few hours of the application portal opening, the varsity had received a total of 25,889 applications. The application process began on June 20 and as many as 19,543 applications were received for undergraduate courses, followed by 5889 for postgraduate courses and 457 for PHD courses on the first day itself.

However, the official data for the number of seats available under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category and college-wise seats will be released with the DU 2020 official notification.

Even as application numbers are poised to exceed last year's, the admission process has

become tedious for many who do not have access to a proper internet connection. Gowhar, a resident of Srinagar, is surviving on 2G internet. He says that if such a situation prevails then he would not fill the forms for the university. "With such high cutoff and internet connection, it is better to apply at home rather than wait to apply at DU," he said, adding that not many are applying from where he lives. Many other students who usually apply for a spot at the varsity from rural areas and heartland districts of the country are also expected to face problems with the admission procedure going online. For many students, this might just end up being a missed opportunity, especially with the pandemic looming over. Students do have the option of filling forms at various centres, but many are also complaining of not being able to step out amid restrictions imposed in light of the pandemic.

Among all UG, PG, PHD courses, most applications are from the unreserved category candidates followed by OBC candidates. In the UG category, 28,973 have applications from unreserved category candidates followed by 5,061 from OBC, 4,350 from SC, 762 from ST, and 637 under the EWS category. For PG admissions, a total of 43,799 applications have been received, of which 8,906 are from unreserved and 2,688 are from OBC category candidates. For PHD courses, 5,647 students have applied so far, of which only 535 have paid their application fees.