Seats vacant, several city colleges to seek extension for UG admission deadline

KOLKATA: A number of colleges have decided to seek extension of dates for undergraduate admission with a number of seats still remaining vacant.

Some other colleges that have had satisfactory admission are apprehensive of students shifting to unitary universities like Jadavpur and Presidency with the admission process still continuing and the counseling of West Bengal Joint Entrance Examinations Board for admission into the engineering colleges still going on. The state Higher Education department has fixed September 30 as the last date for admission.

"Over 750 of our 2700 seats have remained vacant. So, we are planning to urge the Higher Education department for extension of dates," Apurba Ray, vice-principal of Ashutosh College at Hazra said.Surendranath College in central Kolkata has nearly 50 per cent of its 2400 odd seats still lying unoccupied. "About 75 per cent of the students who seek admission in our college come from different districts. But in the COVID pandemic situation, students have preferred to seek admission in colleges close to their residences. We will write to the state government for extension of the dates in order to fill up seats,"Indranil Kar, principal of Surendranath College said.Seth Anandam Jaipuria College in north Kolkata also has 550 of 2200 seats vacant. However, the admission scenario is slightly different in case of Lady Brabourne College where the majority of the seats have been filled up barring two subjects like Sanskrit and Persian. "Till date, admission has been satisfactory, but it is unlikely to remain same as admission in Jadavpur and Presidency University is still going on. There is every possibility that the students who have topped the merit list will migrate to these institutions," Siuli Sarkar, principal of Lady Brabourne College said.Subhasis Dutta, principal of Maulana Azad College said nearly 90 per cent of 1032 seats have already been occupied.