Calcutta, May 12: Universities have decided to start admissions to first-year classes in colleges after the joint entrance exam results are announced, in an attempt to ensure that seats in science courses do not remain vacant or are filled up with less-deserving candidates.

Admissions to undergraduate colleges usually begin in the first week of June, immediately after the results of Class XII board exams are declared. This year, the board exam results are expected to be declared between May 18 and June 4. Admissions to colleges will take place in the third week of June and forms will be distributed as usual at the beginning of the month.

JEE results are likely to be declared in the first week of next month, followed by counselling, which concludes around the third week of June.

Apprehending that many students who enrol for science courses may not finally join first-year classes after cracking the JEE, Calcutta University, West Bengal State University, Kalyani University, Vidyasagar University and Burdwan University have directed the principals of their affiliated colleges not to start the admission process before the JEE results are declared.

“Colleges should start admitting students only after JEE results are announced. However, we have asked the colleges to start the process of giving out admission forms immediately after the Class XII results are announced,” said Swapan Paramanik, the vice-chancellor of Vidyasagar University.

Calcutta University has decided to start the admission process for first-year classes in its affiliated undergraduate colleges on June 21.

“It is a common tendency among many students to take admissions to undergraduate courses before the JEE results are declared in order to keep both options open. Once they crack the JEE, the students switch to the engineering and medical courses, leaving the seats they had already occupied in the undergraduate colleges vacant. This problem is faced by many of our colleges. This time, I will ask the principals of the colleges to start the admission process to first-year classes a bit late,” said Alok Banerjee, the vice-chancellor of Kalyani University.

First-year classes already begin by the time the colleges realise that the students who cracked the JEE will not join the courses. Finally, their seats have to be given to “less-deserving candidates”.

“We cannot hold back the admission process for a long time. But we are trying to explore a suitable methodology to ensure that seats in the colleges are given to deserving students,” said Ashoke Thakur, the vice-chancellor of West Bengal State University, Barasat.

Most of the universities plan to start the first-year classes in the first week of July this year. The universities have also requested the state joint entrance examination board to start the counselling process earlier this year.

Sidhartha Dutta, the chairman of the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination Board, said he was aware of the problem. “We understand the problem faced by the colleges. We are trying to complete the counselling of the JEE students early,” Dutta said.