The state government is yet to announce whether a centralised online admission system based on plus-II marks would be introduced at the undergraduate level from the 2024-25 academic year.
Various boards have published their plus-II results, but the education department is yet to notify whether the colleges would admit students through the centralised portal or continue with the stand-alone mechanism.
The state higher secondary results were announced on Wednesday and the ISC results on Monday. The CBSE is expected to announce its plus-II board results soon.
Several college principals said students and their guardians are calling them up, seeking to know about the admission procedure, but they are struggling to answer the queries because they are in the dark.
In early March, the department had asked colleges to share details of their admission rules as part of the preparatory steps aimed at introducing a centralised online admission system, days after Bengal education secretary Manish Jain said such a system would be introduced at the undergraduate level from the 2024-25 academic year.
The principals had been told to share with the department details such as the seat matrix, fee structure, eligibility criteria, merit index rule and the tie-breaking rule.
Till last year, a candidate applying for an undergraduate course was required to log into the websites or portals of various colleges separately.
A member of the committee which was constituted to oversee the launch of the new mechanism said they have fed all the necessary information on the portal and are carrying out test runs, which are a must before the launch of the system.
“We have spoken to the principals about the test runs. However, it is for the department to announce whether the system will be introduced this year,” he said.
Calls and text messages from this newspaper to Jain and education minister Bratya Basu did not yield any response.
A member of the team said they sought the seat matrix from the college heads because it has been overhauled since the introduction of the four-year undergraduate programme from the 2023-24 academic year, as recommended by the National Education Policy.
Earlier, the undergraduate programme was of three years.
The introduction of the four-year programme necessitated many changes.
Undergraduate courses now consist of major subjects, discipline-specific core courses, minor subjects, ability enhancement courses, skill enhancement courses and value-added courses.
“The details had been sought from the colleges so we could know what they are offering under the various subject bouquets. We have structured the portal accordingly so the undergraduate aspirants could get an idea about what is being offered and lock their preferences,” the member said.
“The technical experts are checking during the test runs whether the portal is suffering any glitch.”
Since there is no clarity on the launch of the admission portal, only the autonomous colleges and the minority institutes, which the education department had earlier said would not come within the ambit of the portal, have kicked off their admission process.
Jadavpur and Presidency Universities, which screen applicants based on admission tests and are outside the purview of the centralised portal, will soon start their admission process.
The three Ramakrishna Mission-run colleges — in Narendrapur, Belur and Rahara — screen students through admission tests and have uploaded their eligibility criteria on their websites.
St Xavier’s College (Autonomous) opened its undergraduate admission process on May 2. Tentatively, applications will be accepted till around seven days after the publication of the CBSE results, said principal Father Dominic Savio.
Last updated on 10 May 2024
