NEW DELHI: Several off-campus colleges of Delhi University have reported 50-70% vacancies in their enrolment capacity this year, even after several rounds of admissions and 100% extra allocation.

The situation has forced some of these campuses to launch separate outreach drives in govt schools and press the university for provisions to fill the gaps.

At Bhagini Nivedita College, which is a girls’ institution in Kair, near Najafgarh, out of 985 seats, only 284 have been filled. The 701 seats that are vacant make up 71% of the college’s capacity. The vacancies are spread across both the BA programme and honours courses.

“Every time the university opens an upgrade round, students leave after opting for central colleges. This churn leaves us with hundreds of vacant seats even after multiple allocations,” Vikas Chaudhary, the convenor of the admission committee at Bhagini Nivedita College, said.

Aditi Mahavidyalaya, too, is in a similar conundrum. About 50% of over 1,000 seats are vacant in this Bawana college. What has worried the administration is that some of the most sought-after programmes, such as BCom, BA (Hons), Hindi journalism, social work, and geography, are struggling to attract students.

“There’s a lack of awareness about CUET among students in the villages near our college. That is why we are reaching out to govt schools to counsel them and invite students to enrol for the mop-up rounds, which will take admission based on Class XII scores,” said Neelam Rathi, the principal of Aditi Mahavidyalaya.

She added that the college plans to launch such drives earlier in the admission cycle next year, with the university’s permission, to ensure that the seats are filled on time.

DU’s dean of admissions Haneet Gandhi confirmed that representations from colleges had come in and said the university has identified institutions with high vacancy levels. She, however, did not provide the total number of vacant seats across DU colleges, which could easily run into several thousands.

Observers noted that the contrast between the race for seats in North and South Campus institutions and the struggle to fill seats in off-campus colleges reflects a deeper imbalance in resources, popularity and student preferences. Despite extra allocations this year, many off-campus institutions remain unable to fill classrooms.

Delhi University, in order to fix the high vacancy problem, has announced mop-up admission rounds for undergraduate programmes from Sept 4 to fill vacant seats for which admissions will be based on Class XII marks, not CUET scores.

The university said it will release a college- and course-wise list of vacant seats on its admission portal.

According to the guidelines, already registered candidates who are not admitted anywhere can apply for the mop-up round by logging into their CSAS dashboard.

Fresh applicants can also register by paying a one-time non-refundable mop-up fee of Rs 1,000, in addition to the registration fee of Rs 250 for UR/OBC-NCL/EWS and Rs 100 for SC/ST/PwBD categories.

Colleges will shortlist candidates based on Class XII marks and available vacancies from Sept 8 onwards.

Candidates may receive multiple allocations and will have two days to accept an offer. Students already admitted through CUET will not be eligible to participate. The mop-up will be processed only through the university’s official portal.