As the admissions to various undergraduate (UG) courses in Delhi University (DU) colleges under the third cut-off list came to an end on Friday, the varsity did not witness many admissions in the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category.

The university officials believe that it could be due to the high cut-offs ~ virtually at par with the cut-offs for the General category students ~ pegged for the EWS students so far.

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About 9091 students from the EWS category got themselves registered on the DU’s admission portal for admission to various UG courses. According to a DU official, nearly 1600 students from the EWS category have taken admission so far, even as altogether 5600 seats are reserved for this category of students this year.

At the end of the admissions under the third cut-off list, 49, 971 applicants have enrolled in DU colleges’ UG courses till date. But, with a large number of EWS category seats remaining vacant in many colleges, the DU has decided to drop the cut-off for this category of aspirants by 2 per cent.

Colleges like Miranda House, Daulat Ram College, Kirori Mal College, Lady Shri Ram College have all witnessed vacant seats for the EWS category, especially in major courses like English and Political Science.

Hena Singh, DU’s deputy dean of students’ welfare, said, “There is definitely a need to drop the cut-off by a certain percentage as the EWS category seats have by and large remained vacant possibly due to the high cut-offs. The Admission Committee has therefore decided to drop the cut-off by approximately two per cent for this category, which may help in filling up their vacant seats.”

She further said, “We directly cannot drop the cut-off percentage by four to five per cent. In Miranda House, we have a total of three to four seats left for the EWS category for Political Science, which has a cut off percentage of 97 in the third list. If we drop the percentage by two per cent, then maybe these vacant seats can be filled up. But dropping the percentage by 4-5 per cent will bring in more students than the number of seats available.”

The DU’s fourth cut-off list is expected to be announced on 15 July and the fifth on 20 July.