The higher education department has asked colleges and universities to start receiving application forms for undergraduate courses from July 18 through online “standalone mode”.
The mode was necessitated following the department’s recent decision to stall the rollout of a proposed centralised online admission process.
A schedule set by the department says that the institutes have to open the online portal for receiving applications from July 18. They will receive the applications till August 5, says a notification issued on Saturday.
The admission process was announced three days after education minister Bratya Basu said colleges and universities would not have the centralised process this year because some of the vice-chancellors said they need time to comprehend the new system.
An undergraduate applicant will apply according to the eligibility criteria and enter the best-four score and marks in the subject a candidate wants to pursue in the application format. Scanned mark sheets will have to be attached to the format.
After going through the scores, each affiliated college and unitary university will prepare a merit list and upload it on their website.
The lists have to be published by August 16.
The admission process will have to be completed by September 15 and undergraduate classes will begin on September 19. “Prospective students should not be called for counselling or verification of documents during the process of admission...,” says the notification.
An official of the department said given the latest spike in cases all stakeholders have been told to “adhere to the COVID-I 9 protocol...”.
The admission notification was issued almost three weeks after the publication of the higher secondary results.
“The notification could be issued earlier. We had plans to roll out the centralised process from this academic year and made arrangements. But once the new process was stalled, the department did not want to waste any time...,” the official said.
A VC said it would have been better to introduce the centralised admission process from this year, as this would neutralise the scope of interference of students’ unions in the process. “Although it is held online, the unions still try to vitiate the system in cooperation with a section of college staff, tasked to oversee the process.”
PG admissions
The colleges and universities have been asked to publish the results of the end-semester of undergraduate courses by August 31. Following this, they can start receiving application forms for postgraduate courses on and from September 1.