The state higher education department has asked the universities to reopen the admission portal and extend the admission process for undergraduate level till November 26 as seats are lying vacant at different colleges and universities.
“It has been observed that a good number of seats are lying vacant. Online portal may be reopened for the UG courses in different degree colleges and unitary universities, if required, for receiving fresh applications….,” an order issued by Manish Jain, the principal secretary of the department stated on Tuesday.
The admission portal had closed on October 8 after the extension of the deadline — in the first phase — from October 1.
Some of the colleges said that 20 to 25 per cent seats are vacant following which the admission portal has been reopened, said an official of the department.
The admission portal had to be reopened earlier as seats in science subjects started falling vacant following counselling for BTech courses by the state JEE board which continued till mid September.
“The vacancy figure has increased further as the counselling for admission to NITs through JEE-main begun from October 16,” said a vice-chancellor.
Joydeep Sarangi, the principal of New Alipore College in south Kolkata, said they were likely to reopen the portal from Wednesday.
The department last year too had asked universities to reopen their undergraduate admission portals for a week from December 1 as seats remained vacant after the admission season ended in October.
A VC said one of the reasons for seats remaining vacant amid the pandemic was that a good number of students from the districts refused to enrol in city colleges because of Covid-related factors.
According to him, till the order for reopening of campuses from November 16 was issued last Thursday, students were not sure whether it would be advisable to shift to Kolkata for on-campus classes.
“Therefore many of them preferred to enrol in a college closer home,” he said.