Starting June 17, prospective students in honours courses in the 90 colleges under the University of Burdwan will not have to run from pillar to post to get admission.

They will now have to apply online at www.buruniv.ac.in.

The entire admission process will be online, except when the selected students will be required to appear with documents for the final stage of admission to a college.

It is hoped that the new system will make admissions quicker, transparent and give more choice to students.

Pass course candidates cannot apply online.

They will have to go to the counters.

Only 43 colleges under Calcutta University allow online admission. A few colleges under North Bengal University also allow the process.

Confirming the online application system, Smritikumar Sarkar, the vice-chancellor of the University of Burdwan, said students could select an honours subject and apply to 25 colleges from the university website.

“He or she can choose several subjects as well, but the number of applications per candidate should not exceed 25. This will be much less time-consuming than applying to the colleges in person. It will also, hopefully, cut down on the number of unpleasant campus incidents that can occur at the time of admissions. Burdwan campuses, however, have been free to a large degree from violence,” Sarkar said.

The biggest advantage for students is the number of applications possible.

Applying to 25 colleges in person would be an uphill task, impossible in most cases.

The online application would increase transparency in the admission process, Sarkar added. He said that many colleges are forced to admit more students than it has seats for. But in this system, if the seats of a college are full, it will be “locked”.

A university official said students who have scored more than 45 per cent in higher secondary can apply for honours courses.

The university website will have information on every college — the honours courses on offer and the seats in each course.

Lists will be published for each college after the selection on the website.

A candidate can change his honours subject once.

The registration fee for the admission will be Rs 300 to be paid to the university account through the State Bank of India.

If selected, the candidate will have to pay Rs 1,000 through a bank to the institution for provisional admission.

Final admission will be granted on the presentation of mark sheets and documents in person.

Since this is the first year, centres have been set up at Burdwan, Bankura, Suri and Chinsurah to help the students.

A team of 180, comprising of two non-teaching employees from each college, has been trained at the university to facilitate the process.

The admission process will be completed by July 15.

University officials believe that this will enable them to start classes at the same time in all the colleges.