Reach out to ‘missing’ UG students to fill admission gap: Govt to colleges

KOLKATA: The state higher education department has asked colleges to contact students, who have been allotted undergraduate seats through the centralised portal but have not yet paid the fees or taken admission. The department has shared the list of applicants with the institutes so that the authorities can get in touch with them, clear their confusion about seat selections if any, help them rectify any mistake in the application forms, promote their campuses and convince them to participate in the upgrade round from Wednesday so that they can take admission in courses and colleges of their choice.

The state higher education department conducted a virtual meeting with nodal officers of colleges on Monday to guide them about how to help out candidates before starting the upgrade round.

Of the 4.2 lakh seats that were allotted to candidates through the centralised admission portal, 3.6 lakh students have taken admission. At the end of the first round of the admission, around 60,000 seats were found vacant though those were allotted to candidates based on their first preference. Moreover, 1 lakh-odd candidates have been put on wait list as some had mistakenly marked their preferred courses and institutes as second or third choices, some had made errors in application processes and some could not be allotted their preferred courses in colleges of choice. So far, of the 4.2 lakh seats, 1.6 lakh were vacant, said an official.

The upgrade round will start on Wednesday and will continue till Sunday (July 28).

At the meeting, state officials asked colleges to promote their institutes before the upgrade round started. The admission nodal officer of a college said, “The education department officials told us to reach out to listed candidates and convince them to take admission. We have been asked to make calls to the candidates within this two-day gap before the upgrade process starts.” The nodal officer of another college said, “We were asked to reach out to candidates who marked our institute as a second or third choice. We are supposed to promote our campus and courses so that the candidates can get a clear knowledge before finalising their admission.”

A higher education department officer said, “We expect around 25,000 students to opt for upgrade, but we want to reach out to as many applicants as possible and so, we need support from college authorities, too. We will share the list of candidates with the colleges.”


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