Team Siliconindia

• Delhi University began its on-the-spot mop-up admissions for undergraduate courses on September 23, 2025, but turnout has been very low, with only 73 of 1,700 BA Honours seats filled on the first day.
• The mop-up round uses Class 12 marks instead of CUET scores to be more inclusive, yet participation remains poor, especially in the PwD reserved category with nearly 2,000 seats vacant.
• The admissions drive continues until September 29, after which no further admissions will be held for the academic year, leaving thousands of seats potentially unfilled.

Delhi University (DU) initiated its physical on-the-spot mop-up admissions for under-graduate courses, September 23, 2025, but till now the response has been lackadaisical. On the first day, just 73 of the 1,700 seats available in BA Honours were filled, and officials are left wondering if this last admission drive will manage to fill the massive seat vacancies that still remain. The mop-up was introduced as an ultimate step to fill the massive void of vacant seats as many rounds of counselling were unable to draw enough students.

Officially, nearly 876 students were called for admission on day one, but the turnout was a far cry from what was expected. Perhaps the most notable distinguishing feature of the mop-up round from the earlier admission rounds is that eligibility is being considered based on Class 12 marks and not CUET scores.

The intention was to make it more inclusive and also to encourage students who have not performed well in CUET to still secure a seat. Nonetheless, despite this relaxed situation, the rates of participation were dismal. The scale of vacant chairs is high, with the university having approximately 7,000 seats vacant in total.

Also Read: Tripura Higher Ed Minister Guarantees Admission for All Class 12 Passers

A highly critical gap can be observed for the reserved category of Persons with Disabilities (PwD), with almost 2,000 seats remaining unfilled. The authorities have apprehended that so large a proportion of seats meant to make higher education inclusive could go unfilled, rendering the policy of reservation pointless.

The mop-up round will continue till September 29. On Wednesday, September 24, the university will issue invitations to nearly 2,600 students from the Unreserved (UR) and OBC categories to fill up the remaining BA Honours seats. These would be followed by admissions for BCom and Economics on Thursday, and science courses in subsequent days. The university hopes that inviting students from these groups in greater numbers might create more involvement in subsequent days.

The authorities have made it very clear that post-mop-up round, no further admissions will take place for the current session, leaving the vacant seats available but unoccupied. The finality has kept students on their toes to enter DU, but whether this would be enough to make a significant dent in the gap remains to be seen.