In a latest development in the admission process, the University of Delhi has decided to increase ward quota seats for the undergraduate programmes across various colleges and courses. The number of reserved seats has increased substantially, going from 6 to 16 (upper limit) that will be applicable from this academic session.
The ward quota takes into consideration the children of both teaching and non-teaching staff. Using the opportunity offered by the quota, these students can take admission to the various colleges affiliated with the university. The ward quota for admission to the varsity had been introduced for the first time in 1996 with six seats available. Of the six reserved seats, three were earmarked for teaching staff and the other three for the children of the non-teaching staff.
A guideline was issued by the DU Academic Council in this regard providing all the relevant information. According to the specifications, 16 seats are to be reserved in the ward quota in colleges having 400 or more seats in any course. Of these 16 seats, 8 would be reserved for the children of the teaching staff while the remaining 8 will be allotted to the children of the non-teaching staff associated with the college. In the eight seats, admission to four seats will be filled on the basis of merit while the remaining four will be filled on the basis of an entrance examination that prospective students would have to undertake. The total number of seats to be reserved will be based on the total number of seats available in the college. 12 will be reserved in colleges having seats between 201 to 399, 8 in colleges that have seats in the range of 101 to 200 and 4 seats in colleges that have only 51 to 100 seats. The reserved seat under the quotas will go down to 2, if there are 50 or fewer seats in total, in any course that a college has to offer.
The division in the increase of ward quota seats is slightly different for postgraduate programmes where two seats are reserved in the ward quota for courses with 50 seats. 1 seat will be filled on a merit basis while the other on the basis of the admissions test. For this, however, there are no distinctions between teaching and non-teaching staff.
