Colleges struggle to fill UG seats

Colleges struggle to fill UG seats

10 Days, Several Lists, Many Vacant Berths

Poulami.Roy@timesgroup.com

Kolkata:11.09.2021

Ten days after admission to undergraduate courses in colleges commenced, seats in many courses in several colleges remain empty, a cause for worry for hundreds of students who have scored over 90% in board results but are yet to get a seat in a subject and college of choice. Principals fear some seats may remain vacant even in high-demand courses despite the huge number of applicants due to their inability to reclaim the seats of students who opt for a second college after taking admission in one.

This year, colleges have received a record number of applications. With no application fee, some students have applied to as many as 20 colleges. The top scorers figured in the first list of multiple colleges with some even taking admission in more than one. With no system to ensure that the previous seat will be vacated once a student takes admission in another college, it remains a challenge.

Surendranath College, for instance, received 54,000 application forms but only 10% seats have been filled up till date. College principal Indranil Kar pointed out that every year, nearly 30% seats remained vacant due to their inability to weed out those students who have also taken admission elsewhere and don’t report to the college when classes commence.

To solve the problem, many colleges have introduced a wish list format that allows interested students to gain admission.

Many principals of city colleges felt a central counselling system could be a solution. “Colleges do face a challenge in identifying students who have taken admission but then don’t attend classes because they’ve taken admission elsewhere as well. At present, students are not bound to inform colleges that they have taken admission elsewhere,” said New Alipore College principal Jaydeep Sarangi.

A principal of a central Kolkata college reasoned that a central counselling system could eliminate the problem of multiple admissions by a single candidate through use of a dedicated portal to monitor the admission process.

A few years ago during his first stint in the education department, minister Bratya Basu had proposed a centralised counselling system but it had ultimately not been implemented. A section of principals now feel it may be time to revisit the proposal.

There is a counter argument against central counselling as well with some pointing out that it is not foolproof. But even they admit that while top rung colleges will always be the first preference like counselling in Joint, it will be easier to know how many are opting out for upgradation if the process is monitored centrally.