Datanomics: Fewer hostel seats in Delhi, but fill-up rate highest

Delhi's hostel capacity remains limited as lakhs of students seek accommodation for higher studies

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced on Tuesday that the government would construct hostels for 10,000 students in the national capital. The announcement comes days after a building collapsed in Satya Niketan, near Delhi University’s (DU’s) South Campus, killing seven people, including five DU students. As the country’s top education hub, Delhi draws lakhs of students every year for higher studies, but many who secure admission struggle to find hostel accommodation. Only about 12 per cent of enrolled students in the national capital get a hostel seat, among the lowest shares in the country, just above Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. Part of this low proportion in Delhi could be attributed to a probable lower percentage of day scholars compared to other states. Yet the few seats that Delhi does offer fill up the fastest, with 84 per cent occupied in 2023-24. More hostels are concentrated in state public universities, which accounted for nearly 98 per cent of the 5.34 million reported hostels across universities in 2023-24. The total number of hostels in Delhi peaked at 352 in 2021-22, comprising 0.7 per cent of the country's total. It has since dropped to 338 in 2023-24, comprising 0.6 per cent of the total.