Ashoka Seeks Fourth-Year Volunteers to Move Off-Campus as Housing Falls Short

On 18th August, 2026, Dr. Dheeraj Sanghi, Dean of Student Affairs (DSA), sent an email addressing the 4th-year undergraduate male students (UG ‘27), seeking volunteers to shift from on-campus housing to off-campus accommodation at TDI Lake Grove. This move has come following a surge in student intake for the UG ‘30 cohort and raises questions about future housing crises.

The email stated that with the incoming first-year cohort consisting of over 1000 students, the administration implemented “historical trend of withdrawal numbers in our planning”, but there was still a shortage. Living in TDI Lake Grove, would also save approximately NR 50,000 in a semester, with shared electricity costs shared amongst the renters. TDI students would also have additional flexibility to choose between food options available on-campus or at TDI. There will be an increase in shuttle services and zero restrictions for campus entry or exit. The administration also included a choice to shift back to On-Campus housing for their last semester: “In our discussions with several 4th-year students over the past few days, their desire to spend the final semester on campus was expressed. Keeping this in mind, we assure that every 4th year student residing in TDI will have the opportunity to choose campus accommodation in the next semester.”

For all the incentives on offer, what actually determines a TDI resident's daily life is the shuttle service. The shuttle service functions less as a convenience and more as the mechanism that makes an off-campus cohort viable at all. TDI residents will not be treated as day scholars — there is no 8 am to 8 pm access window which applies to the latter — but their actual freedom of movement is still restricted by how frequently the shuttle runs and whether students manage to get a seat.

Shortage in housing is not new in Ashoka. In 2024, the university opened Residence Halls 6 and 7, expanding on-campus housing capacity in anticipation of growing cohort sizes. Yet with each subsequent admissions cycle bringing larger incoming batches — for UG 2026’s class crossing 1000, an 37% increase from UG ‘25, according to Academic Management System (AMS) data — that expansion has been absorbed almost as quickly as it was built.

The shortfall driving this year’s ask is 15 to 20 students, which is comparatively small, but it points to a pattern: campus housing capacity added in one year is being outpaced by admissions growth within two. If this trajectory continues, the question is no longer whether the university will need to find overflow housing again, but how often, and for which group of students next. TDI Lake Grove has been functioning as that overflow space before. The complex already houses nearly all of Ashoka's Masters and PhD cohorts — more than 400 students in total — alongside late graduates, students with health accommodations, and, more recently, a portion of the student body placed through the Gender-Affirmative Housing (GAH) program facilitated by the Campus Life Ministry.

In each case, students who did not fit neatly within standard on-campus housing categories were routed to TDI. That the university is now asking fourth-year cis-men to join that arrangement marks a shift from TDI as a designated fix for specific student needs to a general-purpose release valve for enrollment growth. For students who chose Ashoka on the promise of a residential college experience, being asked to spend their final year off campus, however voluntary the framing, sits uneasily against that promise.

Framed as a choice, this request asks fourth-year cis-men to solve a problem the university has yet to solve structurally: how to keep pace with its own admissions growth. That Residence Halls 6 and 7 were not enough this year — and that the gap is being closed through off-campus placement rather than long-term capacity planning — suggests the university has yet to reconcile its ambitions for enrollment growth with its identity as a residential campus. Until it does, this is unlikely to be the last email asking students to volunteer their way around a shortfall.

[Edited by Antara Kulkarni and Avika Mantri]