Volunteers help aspirants at North Campus, Monday. (Express: Tashi Tobgyal)
Despite a longer registration window, applications for Delhi University’s undergraduate courses fell this year. With the registration process ending on June 12, a total 2,07,751 aspirants applied for the 54,000 seats in 61 colleges. Last year, 2,50,914 people had applied.
Officials attributed this to technical glitches on the online portal and a delay in declaration of the board results.
“During initial days, different tabs to fill academic details and marks were closed. This may have impacted applications,” said a senior university official. Most of the applications are from Delhi, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Haryana (see box). The university received application from across the country, as far as Andaman and Nicobar Islands, from where 33 people applied. Like the previous years, BA Programme, English (Hons) and BCom programme were the most sought-after courses. Read | Soon in DU: 5-year journalism course, PG in cyber security, click here
These subjects are popular because students apply irrespective of their stream. “As most students who apply have studied English, they tend to apply for the subject along with others,” said Amrita Bajaj, deputy dean, students’ welfare.
BCom (Hons) and Economics (Hons) also saw several applicants. This year, BA (Hons) Journalism, too, emerged as a popular course. The university received 76,154 applications for the journalism course, offered in just five colleges. Read | DU admissions 2017: PG, MPhil, PhD courses registration postponed for the third time, click here
The board-wise application to the university also reflected the poor pass percentage of some state boards. The Bihar Board, which had a poor Class XII result, saw a drop in applications to 3,192 from 4,375 last year. Applications from Punjab fell from 356 to 269.