More than four lakh undergraduate seats across Gujarat’s public universities remain unfilled even after the completion of two rounds of admissions under the Gujarat Common Admission Services (GCAS), indicating a significant gap between available seats and student enrolment.
Of the 5.17 lakh seats offered by public universities, only 1,12,449 have been allotted so far, translating to less than 25 per cent occupancy. The situation is even more pronounced in private universities, where only 477 admissions have been allotted despite 43,602 applications being received across 24 institutions.
Among public universities, Saurashtra University recorded the highest number of admissions with 21,853 seats allotted, followed closely by Hemchandracharya North Gujarat University with 21,251 admissions. Veer Narmad South Gujarat University allotted 14,542 seats, while Gujarat University and Bhakt Kavi Narsinh Mehta University recorded 11,523 and 10,229 admissions respectively.
Other universities reporting notable admissions include Shri Govind Guru University with 8,661 allotments, MS University with 7,058, Sardar Patel University with 6,549, MK Bhavnagar University with 5,032, and Kachchh University with 4,219.
A GCAS official acknowledged that despite the system allowing colleges to issue admission offers exceeding the available seat count to improve enrolment, many institutions have not been able to fully utilise the provision.
Officials also pointed out that private universities are offering admissions through GCAS for only around half of their sanctioned intake, reflecting a stronger preference among students for public universities.
Among the remaining institutions, Gujarat Technological University recorded 1,503 admissions, while Shree Somnath Sanskrit University and Children’s Research University managed to fill only 26 and three seats respectively.
With vacancies continuing to remain high despite over-allotment measures, universities are now looking towards the third admission round in the hope of improving seat occupancy and boosting overall enrolment.