Test Hurdle: Editorial on the Impact of CUET and CSAS on India's Higher Education
15 September 2025 | The Telegraph
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…