About 87K applications received from students outside state: Minister

Kolkata: Students are preferring Bengal as their destination for Higher Education, stated Education Minister Bratya Basu said on Wednesday. Out of 26,22,442 applications received for undergraduate courses offered in state universities and colleges across state through the recently-introduced online admission portal, 87,010 applications were from other states like Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, amongst others.

Application process for 9,46,921 seats in undergraduate courses across 16 state universities commenced from June 24 under the centralised admission portal.

The Higher Education department received 26,22,442 applications from 4,76,808 students, till date. The application window closes on July 7.

“Students from all over India have applied in our Online Admission Portal to pursue UG courses! A total of 87,010 applications have been received from states, including Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra. Up from Jammu and Kashmir right down to Kerala, students are preferring Bengal as their destination for Higher Education. We welcome them with wide open arms!” minister shared on his ‘X’ handle.

Students from across India wishing to study in the state are being able to conveniently apply through the portal for admission to 7,217 undergraduate courses in the government and government-aided general degree colleges and universities. There is no application fee and students can apply for a maximum of 25 undergraduate courses.

Out of the total application, majority were from Bengal — 25,35,432 —followed by Bihar (31,745), Jharkhand (28,721), Assam (7,504), Uttar Pradesh (4,039), Orissa (3,892), Tripura (3,143), Gujarat (112), Delhi (553) and Chattisgarh (448), amongst others.

At any point until the admission window closes, the candidate can edit their preference. They will be able to see their merit positions for all courses applied on their dashboards. Merit list will be published institution and course wise on July 12. After admission against seat allotment, seat allotment in the upgrade round will be published and accordingly further process will take place. New session 2024-25 will start from August 7.

After phase one completion, vacancy lists across the state will be published and application for second phase will be accepted from August 8 to August 17. This merit list will be published on August 20 and they will be able to join classes after physical verification which will be held from September 3 to September 7.

There are 461 colleges across the state. However, universities and colleges like Presidency University, Jadavpur University, autonomous colleges, minority colleges, B.Ed, law, fine arts and performing arts, crafts, dance and music colleges or programmes are excluded from the centralised online admission system.