Bengal to introduce centralised system for college admissions
Students on the Jadavpur University campus.
The West Bengal government is set to introduce a centralised online admission system for colleges which is expected to be both timesaving and transparent.
Initially introduced in April 2023, plans for rolling out the new system were dropped given that they had been introduced far too close to the admission cycle to implement effectively. This year, however, colleges have been asked as early as February to submit information on their intake capacity, subject combinations and fee structure to the Directorate of Public Instruction. IT companies will now begin developing the centralised portal.
Both parents and students have welcomed the move.
Issues in current system
Last year, when this system was about to be introduced, Shyamalendu Chatterjee, general secretary of All Bengal Principals’ Council, had explained to The Hindu how it would
benefit students and leges alike.
“There are about 458 colleges in Bengal. Let’s say a student applies for B.Com (Honours) in five colleges: Umesh Chandra College, City College, Goenka College, Jaipuria College, and Chittaranjan College. The student’s name figures on the first list of Chittaranjan College and he takes admission there,” Dr. Chatterjee had explained.
“After 15 days, his name comes on the list of Umesh Chandra College. The boy cancels his admission in Chittaranjan College and takes admission in Umesh Chandra College. This process could go on and on. Finally, 70% of the students in the first list of Chittaranjan College cancel their admission and eventually 50% of the seats remain vacant, causing an acute crisis in the lowerranking colleges. Centralised admission will take care of this problem and also minimise corruption. Many students are deprived from getting admission in their preferred college despite having the requisite marks,” he had said. col