Delhi University is consistently one of the most searched — and most competitive — destinations among CUET PG applicants, which makes its specific eligibility rules worth understanding in detail rather than assuming DU simply mirrors NTA's baseline.
Minimum marks: Most postgraduate programmes at DU require candidates to hold at least 50% aggregate marks in their qualifying bachelor's degree, with the standard 5% relaxation for SC, ST, OBC-NCL, EWS, and PwBD candidates as per Government of India reservation norms. However, DU is known to set higher thresholds for specific, high-demand programmes — some competitive courses require 55–60% aggregate marks, so the "50%" figure should be treated as a floor, not a universal number across every department.
Subject-background mapping is stricter at DU than at many other universities. DU tends to closely tie a candidate's undergraduate subject to their eligible postgraduate programmes. For example, applying for an M.Sc. in Zoology typically requires your bachelor's degree to be in Zoology, Life Sciences, or a closely related Biological Science — a general science degree without that specific background may not qualify, even with a strong CUET PG score. This is a common trap for candidates who assume a "good score" alone is sufficient.
Age limit: DU follows NTA's baseline position — there is no upper age limit for CUET PG-based postgraduate admission at DU.
Category relief: DU applies the standard Government of India reservation framework — 27% OBC-NCL, 15% SC, 7.5% ST, 10% EWS, and 5% PwBD (horizontal) — with the customary 5% marks relaxation extended to SC/ST/PwBD candidates specifically.
Admission process: Everything from document verification to seat allotment at DU runs through the university's dedicated Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS-PG) portal — a separate system from CUET PG itself. Your CUET PG score gets you into DU's applicant pool; CSAS-PG is where the actual seat gets decided, based on your normalised score, category, and programme preferences. Class 12 or other prior academic marks play no role in this stage — it's driven entirely by your CUET PG performance and preference order.
One detail that trips up a meaningful number of DU applicants each cycle: reserved-category certificates (particularly OBC-NCL and EWS) are commonly required to be issued within the current financial year for DU's counselling process specifically — even if NTA accepted an older certificate during the CUET PG registration stage itself. Keeping an updated certificate ready well before counselling begins avoids a completely avoidable rejection.
It's also worth noting how DU's process differs from many other universities in terms of transparency: DU typically publishes a detailed, programme-wise eligibility table as part of its admission bulletin, breaking down the exact minimum percentage and subject prerequisites for each individual course rather than relying on a single blanket rule. This level of detail is genuinely useful — but it also means candidates need to check the table for their specific programme rather than assuming the general 50% figure applies uniformly, since DU is one of the universities most likely to set course-specific exceptions above the baseline.
Related reading: For NTA's baseline eligibility rules that apply before DU's own layer of requirements, see our CUET PG Eligibility Criteria 2027 guide.
