Calcutta University (CU) is set to relax its undergraduate admission rules, making enrolment easier for CBSE and ISC students.

In the proposed system, awaiting the syndicate’s approval, a student who has passed in at least four subjects, including a 100-marks paper in English, in Plus II will be eligible for admission to an undergraduate course. Environmental science can be one of the four subjects.

In the present system, a student has to pass in at least five subjects, excluding environmental science, in Plus II to be eligible for admission.

The rule has been posing a problem to students from CBSE, ISC and other boards outside the state who have the option to pass in only four subjects, including environment science, to clear Plus II.

“We are relaxing the eligibility criteria of passing in at least five subjects, including English and excluding environmental science. In the new system, the students will have to clear a minimum of four subjects, including a 100-marks paper in English,” said Shyamal Sarkar, the secretary of the university’s undergraduate council.

The council met on Tuesday to finalise the proposal on restructuring the rules. The proposal has been forwarded to the university’s syndicate for approval.

“We have found that some boards, including the Delhi-based Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations, allow students to clear the Class XII exam by studying only four compulsory subjects, including environmental science. The university feels that such students should not be debarred from taking admission in our affiliated colleges,” said an official.

The decision follows agitations by students from a number of colleges whose admissions were cancelled because they had studied only four subjects at the Plus-II level or had mentioned environmental science as a compulsory paper.

“The colleges had flouted rules by admitting those students,” the official said.

The university also decided to allow students who had passed the ISC and CBSE examinations last year with environmental science as a compulsory subject to appear in the BA, B.Sc and B.Com exams in 2008.