In Delhi, college education means Delhi University. The institution, with its 16 faculties, 86 academic departments, 77 colleges and five other recognised institutes spread across the city, has students pouring in from all over the country.
The university admissions for under-graduate courses in all colleges in Delhi, barring two, are centralised.
The first stage is when pre-admission forms or OMR (Optical Mark Reader) forms are filled by students seeking a seat in any college or course. The data is then compiled by the university using computerised machines and sent to each college, which then sets its own cut-off. .
There is no policy of first-come, first-served. This year, the university has a total of 1,03,500 students competing for 54,000 seats. The SC/ST admissions are held separately and are centralised as well. Entrance tests are conducted for a few courses and these do not come under the pre-admission barrier.
The English department’s Combined Aptitude Test for English for admission to BA (Honours) English course with 21 participating colleges is the most popular. Journalism and Law courses also have their own entrance tests.
Other universities have their own admission procedure, even for professional courses. Delhi does not have a Common Entrance Test (CET). Migration to other states is most commonly seen for admissions to professional courses.