The Delhi University has allocated only around 3,500 seats to students in the last round of admission in undergraduate courses, and nearly 6,000 seats are still vacant across colleges, officials said on Friday.

So far, around 64,000 of the total 70,000 undergraduate seats have been filled, they said.

The admission process is in the last leg. The university has announced that the admission process for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes for the academic session 2022-23 will conclude on December 31.

The allocated list was declared on Thursday.

The candidates can accept the allocated seat till Friday.

A senior official said all the 70,000 seats across colleges will not be filled this academic year.

"In the last spot admission round, the university has allocated around 3,500. We will conclude the admission process for the academic session by December 31," DU Dean of Admission Haneet Gandhi said.

Asked whether any more rounds will be announced, Gandhi said, "No, this is the last round for admission into undergraduate programmes." This means even if the 3,500 candidates accept the allocated seats, 2,500 seats across colleges will remain vacant.

The university's admission process is conducted in three phases -- application process, preference filling and seat allotment-cum-admission. This year, the university is admitting students through the Common University Entrance Test instead of their Class 12 marks.

The seats are mostly vacant in off-campus colleges. Most of these colleges are also the ones that have previously struggled to fill seats.

Asked whether the delay in the start of admission was the reason behind this, the official said this year's withdrawal of admission has been less.

"As the admission process started late, so only those students who are genuinely interested in taking admissions in Delhi University applied for it. Unlike previous years, there are fewer withdrawals this year," she said.

The seats will remain despite the varsity's persistent efforts to prevent this.

In order to fill all the seats, the varsity admitted 20 per cent of "extra students" under unreserved and OBC categories and 30 per cent in the SC/ST category to fill the maximum seats in undergraduate courses in the first round of counselling this year.