West Bengal: Seats vacant, last date for UG admissions extended

Mita Mukherjee

The West Bengal government on Tuesday extended the last date for completing the admissions in undergraduate courses to October 8 as a ‘good number’ of seats are lying vacant at several colleges and universities. The government had earlier fixed September 30 as the last date for completing the process of undergraduate admissions for the 2021-22 academic session in all institutions offering undergraduate courses in the state.

A notification was issued by the state higher education department on Tuesday evening saying that many seats are still lying vacant at several colleges and state-aided universities and they will be allowed to reopen their portals for receiving fresh applications from students.

The pass percentages in class XII board examinations were found to be higher than the previous years this time and most colleges and universities had expected that the applications would be more this year and they would find it difficult to accommodate the students.

But the institutions found that though the number of applications was ‘quite high’, the number of takers of the seats were less. Heads of several colleges said the trend is ‘unusual’ and they were worried about it.

At Jadavpur University, a state-aided university and one of the most sought-after institutions among bright and high scoring students, nearly 330 out of 1000 seats in the undergraduate courses (B.A. and B.Sc) are lying vacant after several rounds of counselling.

Suranjan Das, vice-chancellor, Jadavpur University said the university was surprised to see the number of vacancies in some subjects which are very much in demand among students. “ Nearly 230 seats are yet to be filled in our B.Sc courses and around 100 seats are vacant in our B.A courses. This is very unusual. Our BA and B.Sc courses are very much in demand among students. We need to find out why there are no takers for so many seats this time,” said Das.

At Presidency University, another institution in demand among high performing students, nearly 238 seats out of 665 are vacant, sources in the university said.

Nearly 750 seats are vacant in Asutosh College and nearly 960 in Surendranath College both of which are also popular among ‘good’ students.

According to teachers and heads, the vacant seats are likely to get filled once they start receiving fresh applications. “We will be forced to fill the seats with students with low scores but this is not good for the institution,” said a teacher of one of the colleges.

Some teachers said that one of the reasons could be that more students were moving out of the city to pursue undergraduate courses in institutions of other states.

EducationWorld had reported last month how students from West Bengal were showing an increased interest in moving out to other states for pursuing undergraduate courses despite the pandemic.

The government notification read: “ The Department of Higher Education, Government of West Bengal is in the receipt of the UG level admission information for the Academic Year 2021-22 from different colleges affiliated to the State-Aided Universities across the State. It has been observed that a good number of seats are lying vacant at different degree colleges and unitary universities at UG level. Considering the above, online portal may be reopened for the UG courses for receiving fresh applications. UG admission process may continue till 08.10.2021.