Doranda College in the capital has become the first constituent unit of Ranchi University (RU) to start afternoon classes from 2-5pm for the undergraduate section from this academic session, as per the state higher education department's last year directives.

Also, the huge rush of students, kept in waiting list after the admissions to morning session, pushed the college to start the afternoon classes, which have already begun from the first week of June.

Principal V.S. Tiwary said the arrangement was made to help them beat additional inflow of candidates seeking admission. "Every year, we witness huge rush for admissions. But, it was not possible to accommodate all of them. This year, around 7,000 students applied for BA, BCom and BSc courses. We had already filled our morning seats - 640 each in arts, science and commerce faculties. But, many, who had qualified on the basis of our cut off and their intermediate marks, were left out. So, we started the second shift," he said.

The college has enrolled extra 1,700 students for the afternoon session - 1,000 in BA, 500 in BCom and 200 in BSc.

Students couldn't stop thanking the college authorities.

"We felt disheartened after our name did not appear in selection lists. We had not applied in any other college. Then, the college principal asked us to take admission to the afternoon session. It is a boon for us or we would have lost a year," said Vikrant Sahu of BA (history honours).

Another BSc first year student Sujata Mishra added similar arrangements should be made in other Ranchi colleges. "Everybody is not lucky enough to make it to the shortlists of top colleges if one goes by the ratio of the number of seats and applicants. Only, St Xavier's College had started its afternoon session long back. Though late, at least this college too understood students' grievances," said Mishra.

Doranda College, one of the 10 NAAC accredited constituent units of RU, offers undergraduate general and vocational courses like BBA, BCA. But as of now, only students, seeking general courses, were admitted to the afternoon session. Its morning session starts from 7.30am and runs till 10.30am.

When asked about starting the afternoon session in other constituent units of RU, its dean of students welfare S.C. Gupta said he was not aware why other colleges had failed to do so. "It's true last year state higher education department had issued us notice to increase enrolment at UG and postgraduate level. It was communicated to all the principals of our constituent units. We will send them a reminder soon. As of now 12 postgraduate departments have started the afternoon session and the total number of seats has been increased from 50 to 60 in each class," Gupta clarified.

When principals of other RU colleges were contacted regarding the issue, they gave various reasons.

Principal of Ranchi College U.C. Mehta said they would not start any afternoon session as the institute already had 10,000 students altogether at intermediate and undergraduate level. "We are overloaded and also facing acute crunch of teachers," he said.