Bhubaneswar, July 15: The last date of application for admission into Plus Two colleges has been extended till July 20 midnight.

The higher education officials said this was done to help students, who had not been able to submit their caste certificates at the Student Academic Management System (Sams) resource centres because of various reasons.

“We are also anticipating more students to apply offline,” said an official.

So far, 3.94 lakh students have submitted their applications online for more than 3.10 lakh seats in the 1,320 junior colleges across the state.

However, only 2.96 lakh students have submitted the hard copy of their e-application forms at the Sams resource centres.

“While candidates have been able to download their marksheets and obtain most other documents for submission, there has been a delay in issuing caste certificates. And once the form validation process begins, no documents claiming weightage would be entertained. Therefore, we decided to extend the application dates to help those students,” the official said, adding that the deadline for submitting a copy of the e-application form at the Sams resource centre was July 21 by 5pm.

The first selection merit list will be published on August 2 on the higher education department’s website (www.dheorissa.in) while the admissions are scheduled to be held from August 7 to 13.

This will be followed by SC/ST extension seat admissions on August 18 and balance seat (spot) admissions on August 25. There will be no second selection process. Classes for all junior colleges are expected to begin from August 27.

Meanwhile, degree college admissions will commence tomorrow and continue till July 20.

Around 1.25 lakh candidates have been invited for admissions that would be closed in four stages — first selection, SC/ST extension seat, spot selection and admission after supplementary/ instant exams.

The state has 668 degree colleges with a sanctioned strength of over 1.41 lakh seats.

For the first time, the higher education department has decided to have five streams in degree colleges, the classes of which will start from August 1. The streams are arts, commerce, physical science, biological science and self-financing.

The respective honours and pass subjects will come under the five categories. Prior to this, arts, science and commerce were the available streams.