A day after the cancellation of all exams due to the Covid outbreak, the process of online registration for over 35,000 seats of 31 courses spread over 29 constituent and affiliated colleges of Binod Bihari Mahto Koyalanchal University (BBMKU), Dhanbad began on Wednesday through the Chancellor’s portal (https://jharkhanduniversities.nic.in). All its colleges are situated across Dhanbad and Bokaro.

Vice Chancellor of BBMKU, Anjani Kumar Srivastava, while talking to The Telegraph Online said that registration began for BA, BSc, B Com Honours and general courses on Wednesday at around 12 noon (last date August 14). The application for the undergraduate vocational courses will begin from August 4 and will conclude on August 18.

As per the university notice, a student can apply for a maximum of eight courses in different subjects in different colleges. The application fee for BA, BSc, B Com Honours and general course is Rs 100, while for undergraduate vocational courses the course fee will be Rs 250.

The admission board of the university, which met last week under the chairmanship professor DK Singh, had decided to rationalise the number of seats of different courses in different colleges as per the availability of teachers, and also as per the interest of the students. This is because many colleges face shortage of teachers in some subjects though the seats are plenty. It puts extra load on the existing teachers.

The rationalisation of seats will also help curtail seats in courses, where very few students show interest. The university is likely to reduce the number of seats for such courses.

The university, however, may increase the total number of seats in view of large number of applications in their colleges, where teachers are in sufficient numbers. Due to the pandemic, applications in the local colleges are likely to increase as parents may not allow their wards to apply for undergraduate courses in metropolitan cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata.

The admission into the post-graduation courses is likely to begin only after holding the sixth and final semester exams of the undergraduate courses. It was slated to begin from August 4, but got cancelled on Tuesday due to the Covid crisis.

“We will also make preparations for attracting students for some of the professional courses such as Foreign language at post-graduation level,” said Srivastava, adding that the dean of students welfare and course coordinators will make the necessary preparations in this regard.