Bengal asks its colleges to make videos promoting themselves to attract students

Colleges across West Bengal have hurriedly finished making promotional videos about themselves — an idea about which opinion is split — because these videos are to be part of the centralised admission porta

Colleges across West Bengal have hurriedly finished making promotional videos about themselves — an idea about which opinion is split — because these videos are to be part of the centralised admission portal that is mostly likely to be introduced in the State this academic year.

The colleges were given just two days’ time to submit the videos: the State Government circulated the order last Thursday and wanted the promos by Saturday evening. The colleges put together whatever they could in such a short time; many of the institutions cannot be even accessed by their staff because they have been taken over for the conduct of Lok Sabha election.

The demand for the videos from colleges is being seeing as an indication that a central admission portal might, finally, become a reality, even though there is no formal announcement yet regarding it.

“For the last two years West Bengal has been toying with the idea of introducing centralised admissions, backing out at the last minute. This time, the requisitioning of the videos make it seem like it is likely to happen. But State institutions of higher education are already stretched beyond their capacity with hectic examination and evaluation schedule, NAAC visits, multiple courses running simultaneously, paucity of funds and staff. To expect them to produce videos in a couple of days’ notice in order to attract students is simply facile. It is time to go beyond the optics and fund universities and colleges to function better,” a professor at the historic Sanskrit College and University said, asking not to be named.

Ishita Mukhopadhyay, professor of economics at the University of Calcutta, questioned, “Why are videos necessary when UGC has made it mandatory to put up all information regarding a college on its website? Why will the college divert expenditure from education administration and teaching learning to the expensive video-making which is an advertisement for the college?”

The message circulated by the Department of Higher Education said that the video should not be more than two minutes long and should contain information such as the year of foundation of the college, number of students and teachers, courses/programmes offered by it, government facilities it enjoyed, NIRF ranking and NAAC affiliation status (if any), infrastructure and noted alumni.

“The video to end with an invitation to the students to opt for admission to the concerned college. The promotional video must be of good quality, without any background noise and must promote the best practices of the institution,” the department said.