Over 29k registrations in first two hours: DU

New Delhi: Over 29,600 aspirants logged into DU's admission portal to register themselves in the first couple of hours as the varsity started its admission process at 8 pm on Thursday after a long delay which had left students worried.

In the first two hours after the online registration for undergraduate courses of the Delhi University began, 29,622 registrations happened on the portal.

A total of 2,500 payments were made during this time.

Students had begun logging in since morning to check on the status but found the website to be non-functional.

An official said traffic was stopped on the website since various things were being uploaded to the portal ahead of the registration process which was scheduled for 8pm.

Officials said the admission portal has been made mobile-friendly and will even work on 2G network.

This has been done because it has been seen that students mostly use their phones to access the portal, they said.

The registration for postgraduate (PG) programmes, postgraduate Diploma in Cyber Security and Law and for M.Phil and PhD programmes will begin from

June 3.

The online registration for undergraduate courses will end on June 14 and the first cut-off is likely to be declared on June 20.

The admission process by far has been the most delayed that the Delhi University has seen, keeping students on tenterhooks.

The varsity attributed the delay in start of its admission process, despite announcement of results by different boards, to a Delhi High Court order which had asked the varsity to realign its admission process with the re-evaluation process.

"Last year, the Delhi High Court had ordered the varsity to delay its admission process so that students who are awaiting their re-evaluation results can also be a part of the admission process so that they do not lose out.

"This year, the re-evaluation process has already started and the results will be out in a couple of days," said Professor Rajeev Gupta, Dean, Students' Welfare.

There are 11 undergraduate courses to which admissions happen on the basis of entrance test apart from MPhil, PhD and masters programmes.

This year, the varsity will be effecting a 10 per cent increase in seats for economically weaker sections (EWS) and there will be a rise of close to 6,000 seats taking the total number of seats for undergraduate courses to 62,000.

There will be separate cut-offs for students belonging to the EWS category.

An EWS certificate issued by the SDM, dated March 31, 2019, or later certifying the applicant can be uploaded as proof under this category and if the student is awaiting his certificate, he can upload the acknowledgement receipt (for the certificate being under process) as proof.

The varsity will also be carrying out a special drive to ensure that there is more enrolment of candidates from the Scheduled Tribes. Last year, many of the seats were left vacant since there was less enrolment.