Sources in the West Bengal Higher Education department revealed that if the reserved seats are not filled during undergraduate admissions, the same will be de-reserved through the central admission portal as the department is going to exercise the power to fill the vacant seats, from this year.
The admission process through the central portal has been launched for the first time this year. Students from all over the country can apply for this admission process in two phases. Till last year, this process was done through college-based online portals. It has been seen that in many cases reserved seats are not filled. Later, the respective colleges used to fill up their own vacant seats by decentralising those reserved seats.
However, the entire admission process is happening under the supervision of the higher education department this year. Earlier, the principals of various colleges had demanded that the admission process through the decentralisation of reserved seats be overlooked by the government. Subsequently, the department decided that following the second round of admission, this decentralisation will be done through the government portal itself.
Every year, a large proportion of the total number of seats at the undergraduate level remain vacant in state colleges. That also includes reserved seats. Last year, 46 percent of seats were filled, and 53 percent of seats remained vacant, as per Bikash Bhavan sources.
The applications for the first stage of admission to the colleges has already been accepted. It was found that not a single application was submitted in specific departments of seven colleges in total. The list of subjects include Hindi, Urdu, Economics, and Botany (Urdu). Post completion of the admission process, the education department will conduct an internal analysis as to why all these seats are vacant. If necessary, the number of seats for courses that are not in demand may be reduced, according to sources in the education department.
Not only that, the education department is considering bringing B.Ed, engineering, minority, and autonomous colleges under one umbrella in the future.
A total of 34 lakh 73 thousand 210 applications have been received from 5 lakh 27 thousand 781 students after the first round of application deadline. The first phase merit list will be published on July 12, 2024. The admission process will continue from that day till July 18. The education department said that the second round of admission applications will start on August 8 on the central portal.