Many colleges are keeping their stand-alone online portals ready for undergraduate admissions because there is no clarity from the state government yet on the introduction of the centralised online admission system from the 2024-25 academic year.
The results of all major plus-II board exams — CBSE, ISC and the state HS — are out and the autonomous colleges have rolled out their admission plans.
The principal of a south Calcutta college said they had spoken to a service provider so the stand-alone (decentralised) portal could be kept ready.
The principal of a college in South 24-Parganas said they had been verbally told by the higher education department to keep the stand-alone portal on standby.
“The department has over the past two years failed to launch the portal despite multiple announcements. Since the department has yet to notify the introduction this year, we are in the dark. So we are keeping our stand-alone portal ready,” said the principal of yet another college.
In the existing stand-alone mechanism, a candidate applying for an undergraduate course has to log into the websites or portals of individual institutions and apply.
In the proposed system, an aspirant can apply to multiple colleges by logging into a single portal.
The proposed system promises to stop the interference of student unions and local political leaders in the admission process.
Metro reported on May 10 that only autonomous colleges and minority institutions, which are beyond the purview of the centralised admission system, had started their admission process.
Education minister Bratya Basu said: “Since the election process is on, I won’t comment on the issue (on the roll-out of the centralised admission
portal).”
A college principal said it is not clear why the minister can’t comment “on what would be the admission procedure”.
“If the results of the board exams can be published, the admission process can be notified as well,” the principal said.
Indranil Kar, the secretary of the Calcutta University unit of the All Bengal Principals’ Council, said: “Since the department has not yet notified the admission modalities, the colleges are finding themselves clueless. We want the department to announce its stand at the earliest.”
The department had in early March asked the colleges to share details of their admission rules as part of the steps designed to introduce a centralised online admission system.
