Bhubaneswar, July 31: Classes today begins at the junior colleges across the. Most colleges held orientation programmes for the students and provided them with timetables.

"I wanted to join this college and now that I am in, I want to take this opportunity to shape my career," said Arjya Mohapatra, a fresher at BJB junior college.

Seniors have already started planning grand welcome programmes for the new students. "We will be starting campaigning for the students' union elections after that," said Jigyasa Kar, a senior student .

The higher education department has provided students, who had not applied for admission, another chance in an attempt to fill the 1,34,606 vacant seats across colleges.

The students can apply till August 10 and the merit list would be announced on August 14. The admission of these students will take place between August 18 and 24.

Apart from fresh applications, those who have already applied but not allotted seats, failed to take admission despite being selected or want a change of college can also apply, an official notification said.

"This is an opportunity for the students, who were deprived of admission for some reason," said a senior official of the higher education department.

There are 1,512 junior colleges in Odisha with 4,41,220 seats. However, applicants seeking admission in Plus Two courses has decreased by nearly one lakh this year.

Only 3,82,593 applications have reached the department while a total of 4.5 lakh students passed the matriculation this year. Last year the number of applicants was 4.8 lakh. The department had this year increased the number of seats by 10 to 20 per cent in the colleges.