After four rounds of admissions, a large number of seats in colleges affiliated to Delhi University, even the best of them, remain vacant. This never used to be the case before the Common University Entrance Test was begun in 2022; students were admitted on the basis of their Class XII marks. There was a long queue for the best-known colleges, such as Miranda House or St Stephen’s, but they too have vacant seats now. Other colleges have vacancies ranging from 295 to 709 seats: after 50 days of allocation of seats by the Common Seat Allocation System, 9,000 of the 71,000 seats remained unoccupied. In a so-called ‘mop-up’ operation — the situation seems desperate — Delhi University has allowed colleges to admit students who had not sat for the CUET, which many feel to be a hurdle, or registered on the CSAS, on the basis of their Class XII marks. This would mean that students are being admitted on two different principles; also, the students admitted later would have missed weeks of class. Teachers blame the opacity of the process of admission through CUET and CSAS, by which colleges have no idea of seat allocation and cut-off marks. The method hijacks the autonomy of colleges and obviously frightens some students off higher education altogether. The system being opaque, candidates may not always be satisfied either.
It is, however, not just the Delhi colleges that are suffering from a dearth of students. There has been a reduction in undergraduate student numbers in many places in the country, and not just because of competitiveness. Apart from the problems of CUET, the four-year undergraduate course advocated by the National Education Policy, 2020 does not suit many. The multiple exit points may not be as inviting as expected in a country short of employment, where a certificate or a diploma — one year and two years, respectively — would not take a candidate far. Which employer would take in a three-year Bachelor of Arts degree-holder when a four-year BA plus research candidate also applies? Higher education in the country has become a confusing system for many, especially problematic for those who cannot afford private colleges. It seems that a first step would be to rethink the CUET and CSAS, at least for the sake of transparency. Other reforms may then fall into place.