West Bengal To Introduce Centralised Admission To Colleges This Year
Updated On: 31 March, 2024 By: Admission
Previously, the college admission process in West Bengal was quite tedious and time-consuming for students. They had to apply separately to multiple colleges one-by-one if they wanted to increase their chances of getting admitted somewhere. This meant filling out separate forms, paying fees, and submitting documents over and over again for each college.
After applying, students would have no clarity on which college they would eventually get into until very late in the process. They would essentially be in the dark, not knowing where they stood admission-wise at the different colleges they had applied to.
This whole process of applying to multiple colleges individually and then waiting indefinitely to find out the results was very tedious, stressful and time-consuming for students and their families.
The other major issue was the role of unions in the admission process at colleges. These unions would interfere and exert pressure during admissions, often in an attempt to get their favored students admitted by circumventing fair procedures.
Now, with the new centralized online admission system being launched, things will become much easier for students. They can just apply once through a single window and their application will be considered at all the colleges they are eligible for based on their grades/ranks.
So students will be saved from that previous tedious process of applying over and over at multiple individual colleges. Their admission chances will be evaluated at all eligible colleges through the centralized system.
This centralized system will also remove the ability of unions to interfere and influence admissions at individual colleges through pressure tactics, since it's now a centralized process.
Both parents and teachers have welcomed this new system enthusiastically. For parents, it reduces the stress and effort needed from students during admissions. And for teachers at colleges, it eliminates the union pressure they earlier faced during admission season.
Last year in April, the government of West Bengal announced that it would start a new centralized online admission system for all undergraduate college admissions across the state. However, the plan could not be implemented last year because some unions opposed it.
These unions usually have a say and exert influence in the regular college admission process. Since the new centralized system would reduce their role, they protested against it being started last year. That's why the single-window online system could not begin in 2023 as planned initially.
This year however, the government is going ahead with implementing the new system despite opposition from unions earlier.
The principal of Bankim Sardar College, Tilak Chatterjee, welcomed the centralized admission process. He said it will not only make admissions transparent, but also allow students to easily apply to colleges across the entire state through a single application.
Another principal, Shyamalendu Chatterjee, explained with an example how the old system caused problems that the new online process will solve:
Suppose a student applied to 5 colleges for B.Com course. He first got admitted to Chittaranjan College based on his rank. But after 15 days, when his name came up in the list for Umesh Chandra College, he canceled his Chittaranjan admission to take the Umesh Chandra seat.
Then a month later, his name appeared in the Jaipuria College list. So he canceled Umesh Chandra and took admission in Jaipuria instead.
This constant changing of admissions by students would leave 70% seats vacant initially in colleges like Chittaranjan. Eventually 50% would remain vacant, causing an acute crisis there.
The centralized system will fix this issue. Students will only get a single admission through the common portal based on their best preference/rank. It will also reduce corruption and ensure more students get into their preferred colleges based on merit.
