‘Centralised UG admission portal to save students of all hassles’
The heads of various state government-aided college and unitary universities have welcomed the state Higher Education department’s move to bring in a centralised online admission portal for undergraduate courses from this year.
Through a centralised platform, a student will be able to apply to various colleges under the state government just by logging onto a single portal instead of going to individual institutions. The Higher Education department on Tuesday had formed a 10-member team under the West Bengal State Council of Higher Education for the implementation of the online admission portal.
The committee shall work from Bikash Bhavan in Salt Lake, in close coordination with other key officials and the Webel Technology Limited, which will be developing this portal for the candidates applying for undergraduate courses. Taking preparatory steps, the state Higher Education department has also asked various universities to send their admission rules for the UG courses by March 2.
Indrila Guha, Principal of Basanti Devi College said that she is familiar with the centralised admissions conducted by the Calcutta University for postgraduate courses, which according to her is a robust system. Thus she hopes the same for this centralised portal. “It is the first time that a centralised portal like this will be launched for undergraduate candidates. It will include more colleges and will need to be more robust,” Guha said.
Similarly, Surendranath College Principal Indranil Kar feels that this initiative will benefit the students and they will not have to hassle during admission. Not only the candidates, but their parents will also be relieved, Kar said. The Maulana Azad college Principal Subhasis Dutta has also welcomed the initiative.
However, according to news reports universities including Jadavpur University and Presidency University may be kept out of this. They are likely to be allowed to follow their own admission process. The centralised online admission portal for UG will be used in all government-aided colleges, unitary universities and state-aided affiliating universities, excluding autonomous colleges, minority educational institutions or colleges, training colleges and law colleges.
Thus according to an official at Scottish Church College, which is a Christian minority institution, it may not be included in this. The order does not apply to self-financing colleges and colleges as well as universities offering courses in subjects including fine arts, performing arts, nursing, etc.
