I feel i am the right person to answer this question. I live in Banaras, studied for quite some time in the University of Delhi and gave the entrance for law course in BHU.
First let me start with the similarities between the two greatest universities of India.
- Both of them are central universities.
- Offer a wide range of courses, in almost all the subjects and fields.
- Reputed alumni.
- Brand name.
Now, when i start comparing the two, the very first point will be the location. It’s not that Varanasi, which comes in Uttar Pradesh of India is a remote city or lacks access to the modern world. It indeed is the city of temples but is as modern as any metropolitan city of India, without a metro network though. But the University of Delhi is situated in the national capital of India and by no way, the traditional kashi can match it when it comes to night life, access to resources, exposure etcetera. I wanted to include media coverage too, but then i was reminded that varanasi has become the new hub for media. From Prime Minister Modi, to Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Amit Shah all of them have visited and even keep visiting it. So, Varanasi is always in talk on media. But the main drawback of the mighty BHU, i would say is it’s location. Youth find delhi exciting and erudite and wish to be there for pursuing their higher education over Varanasi.
BHU majorly attracts students from the near by cities of banaras, like jaunpur, balia, mugalsarai etc. and also Bihar. While DU has a cream of students from all over India. Even the top scorers of the above listed cities/states also wish to join DU.
The second thing, i would say is the extent of reservation in these two universities. Though the number of seats to be reserved for the reserved categories are fixed by the government, but the cut offs and merit lists depend upon the University. BHU has a lot of reservation. For example, i appeared for the entrance exam for law in BHU, the cut off(out of 450) for a general category candidate was a whooping 300+, for OBC category it was somewhere close to 250–280 while it showed a drastic depression for the ones laid down for SC, ST and employee quota. The cut off for employee quota was mere 49 marks. The seats for general category candidates were only 28. I scored 238 marks but couldn’t get into BHU for law. I’m not saying that DU does not have reservation, but the cut offs are in an acceptable range. Except for the most creamy courses. Like the recent case, where the SC/ST candidates had a zero mark cut off for a masters programme in mathematics in Delhi University. I am only talking about the UG courses, where they take merit based admissions. I only found a nominal difference between the cut off of unreserved category and OBC, eg. if the cut off for BCom Honors for general category was 94%,for OBC it was 92, SC – 88, ST-85 and PwD(person with disability) – 74. Acceptable, isn’t it?
BHU has only a few affiliated colleges, DAV for boys, Vasanta and Arya Mahila college for women and two or three more. While DU has 77 or more colleges. Thus, it has more number of seats in every course it offers as compared to BHU.
When it comes to campus, DU does not even stand close to BHU. BHU covers a large area of Varanasi, has a lush green campus and beautifully built buildings and hostels. We even have a Vishwanath(Lord Shiva) temple within the campus of BHU, a hospital, agricultural product testing fields and what not! Whereas, maximum colleges affiliated to DU are very small, do not even have a hostel and are mere brick buildings. Except the top ten colleges of DU, rest others are just average in infrastructure, academics and ranking.