Centralised admission for colleges in Bengal turning out to be a success

Successful centralised admission portal in West Bengal streamlines undergraduate admissions, providing transparency, efficiency, and relief to students and institutions.

A single-window system introduced in West Bengal this year for undergraduate admissions has turned out to be a success, bringing relief to students and institutions alike. The centralised admission portal has worked without glitches so far, bringing about transparency and efficiency in a hitherto-cumbersome process.

“Centralised portal, in a way, is a revolutionary platform for aspiring students. They can apply for sufficient number of colleges under any university through a common portal. There is transparency, as college-wise applications in different streams are publicly visible. [The portal] also eliminates the requirement of seat capacity-wise merit list publication in several phases, something that delayed admission and class commencement,” Dr. Jaydeep Sarangi, principal of Kolkata’s New Alipore College, told The Hindu.

“Since students can avail necessary details of colleges with fees structure, combinations, faculty, services and activities/opportunities from one window, they no longer have to run around and rush for filling up forms for different colleges. We have received very few calls this year. Students appear to know about their systems. They seem to have less anxiety related to their merit positions and opportunities,” Dr. Sarangi said.

According to him, another big benefit of a centralised system is that upgradation is easy, as students are automatically upgraded as per their preferences, with auto-adjustment in admission fees. This is something the students are happy about, he said.

At the moment, physical verification is going on for students admitted in various colleges after the first round of applications. A second round will begin on August 8 and go on till August 17.

The centralised portal, about which the West Bengal government appeared to have been in two minds for the past few years, appears to have benefited rural colleges too in a big way as they were able to make their presence felt on the centralised portal, making many students opt for them straightaway.

“Most of our seats have filled up in the first round itself. The promotional video we had to make for the portal seems to have helped. The department of higher education too, through its several YouTube videos, has reached out to rural students, clearing doubts and disseminating information. Centralised admission is indeed a pathbreaking step in the field of higher education,” a professor of a rural college located on the outskirts of Kolkata said.