Higher Education dept extends UG application deadline again till July 25

Kolkata: With the legal deadlock over Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation yet to be resolved, the state Higher Education department has once again extended the application deadline for undergraduate (UG) admissions through the West Bengal Centralised Admission Portal (WBCAP).

In a fresh notification issued on Tuesday, the department extended the deadline by another 10 days, till July 25. The application window, initially scheduled to close on July 1, was first extended to July 15, and has now been further extended.

“In the interest of students and as directed by the Chief Minister, we have extended the application deadline by 10 days, till July 25,” state Education minister Bratya Basu announced in a post on his X handle. The WBCAP, launched on June 17, offers a single-window admission facility for 7,229 UG courses across 460 government and government-aided colleges affiliated with 17 universities in the state. The application process began on June 18. As of 6 pm on Sunday, 3,48,294 students had registered, submitting a total of 19,93,433 applications. Among the registered students, 3,787 are residents of other states.

With the latest extension, the phase one application period will now span more than a month. According to the department’s original admission schedule, now defunct, the entire process, including the mop-up round, was supposed to conclude within 19 days after the close of applications. UG classes for the 2025-26 academic session were scheduled to begin on August 1, following physical verification of admitted candidates at the institutional level.

With the latest development, college authorities have indicated that a delay in the commencement of classes is inevitable. While officials admitted that starting classes on August 1 is now unlikely, they emphasised that the delay would not violate University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines, which mandate the start of classes in the first week of August.

“We are trying our best to minimise the delay and expect the legal matters to be resolved soon,” a senior official said.