West Bengal government launches first-of-its-kind centralised portal for undergraduate college admissions

West Bengal launches centralised portal for undergraduate admissions in over 400 colleges and 16 universities, streamlining the process.

The West Bengal government on Wednesday, June 20, 2024, launched a centralised portal for admissions to undergraduate courses in over 400 colleges and 16 universities in the State this year. This comes as a relief to high school graduates who have been anxiously waiting for college admissions to begin in the State since May, when class 12 board examination results were announced.

The Centralised Admission Portal, which was in the works for the last ten years, would provide a consolidated platform to college applicants from across the country. “For provisional admission, applicants would no longer have to resort to making in-person manual applications henceforth,” School and Higher Education Minister Bratya Basu told mediapersons at Kolkata’s Bikash Bhavan on Wednesday. He added that no extra application charges would have to be paid, apart from the final enrolment fee for the course of choice at the end of the admissions procedure.

The portal would be open for registrations and applications between June 24 and July 7. On July 12, merit lists for different institutions and courses would be published. A total of 9,46,921 seats across institutions and courses in the State are open to applicants this year. 

The Minister also highlighted that in the central admissions portal, a single applicant cannot enrol to multiple courses at once, but can opt for a single upgrade to a more preferred seat in the second round of admissions. “When the first round of admission procedures are complete, a second merit list will be brought out based on the availability of seats. If students did not get their preferred choice the first time, they can opt for an upgrade based on the second merit list as per seat availability,” Mr. Basu said.

The first round of admissions will take place between July 12 and July 18, with the option to change or upgrade one’s seat between July 23 and July 26. A final merit list and allocation list will be published on August 20.

In case a student wishes to switch to a different course, they would only have to pay the excess amount based on the difference in admission fees between the two courses. “If the fees of the second course is lower than that of the first, the balance amount would be refunded automatically to the applicants’ bank accounts at the end of the admissions procedure,” Mr. Basu said. He added that no additional procedures have to be undertaken by the students to retrieve the balance amount in admission fees in case of a change.

In the portal, students can apply to a maximum of 25 undergraduate courses, out of the 7217 courses available in the system. The portal however is not applicable for aspirants seeking admission in Presidency University, Jadavpur University, autonomous colleges, minority colleges, B.Ed. courses, law courses, and programmes related to fine arts and performing arts.