DU fills 340 vacant first-year undergraduate seats for 2024-2025
The University of Dhaka has filled 340 vacant seats across various departments and institutes in its first-year undergraduate programmes for the 2024–2025 academic session.
The decision was taken at an urgent meeting of the Deans' Committee on 3 August, chaired by Vice-Chancellor Professor Niaz Ahmad Khan, reads a press release.
Despite the completion of the admission process, several units still had unfilled seats. To address this, the Deans' Committee approved a special migration process, enabling candidates from the waiting lists to fill the vacancies.
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Under this process, 191 seats were filled in the Arts, Law, and Social Sciences units; 145 in the Science unit; three in the Business Studies unit; and one in the Fine Arts unit.
The decision follows the start of classes in early July, when many seats — particularly in the Arts and Science faculties — remained vacant. Even after seven rounds of subject migration, departments such as Urdu, Persian, Sanskrit, and Pali continued to experience low enrolment.
Technical fields, including Leather Engineering and Technology, reported nearly two-thirds of their seats unfilled, while other science departments faced similar challenges due to strict subject-specific admission criteria. Departments such as Physics, Applied Chemistry, and Electrical and Electronic Engineering struggled to fill seats because many applicants failed to meet the minimum subject-specific marks.
Professor Mohammad Moninur Rashid of the Institute of Education and Research (IER) commented, "Seat numbers at universities should not be fixed; they must be regularly reviewed." He emphasised the need to align seat allocation with market demand to prevent recurring under-enrolment.
