Autonomous and minority colleges that do not come under the purview of the state-run centralised admission system have started their undergraduate admissions even as government and government-aided colleges have yet to open their portal.
Colleges like St Xavier’s, Scottish Church and Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira, Belur, started receiving admission applications last week.
The colleges that come under the ambit of the centralised portal are awaiting approval from the state higher education department before starting their admission
process.
A delay in starting the admission process has left many principals of these colleges concerned.
They apprehend that bright undergraduate aspirants will increasingly enroll in colleges that have started receiving the application forms.
“The results of the state higher secondary and ISC examinations were declared early last week. The CBSE Class XII results were declared on Tuesday. But the department has yet to let us know when our portals will open. Last year, as our portals opened one-and-a-half months after the publication of the Plus-II board results, thousands of seats in government and aided colleges remained vacant,” said Manas Kabi, the principal of Asutosh College in south Calcutta.
Joydeep Sarangi, the principal of New Alipore College, said they hoped the state government would open the admission process “soon drawing lessons from last year”.
An official of the education department said that as the issue of the OBC reservation was sub judice following litigation in the Supreme Court, they were awaiting legal opinion before allowing the start of the undergraduate admission process.
In March, the Bengal government informed the apex court that the state decided to take a fresh exercise to classify OBC beneficiaries after Calcutta High Court quashed the categorisation of 77 communities as Other Backward Classes for reservation in jobs and education in May 2024.
Sources in the education department said the higher education department has approached the backward class welfare department on starting the centralised admission portal in view of the latest legal position.
“The department has also approached the advocate general for his opinion. Once it reaches, the department will take a decision on the admission portal,” said sources.
Asutosh College principal Kabi said it seemed the OBC reservations were holding up the admission process. “We hope that the government will make its stand clear soon,” said Kabi.
An official of an autonomous college said they were going ahead with the admission process based on what the department said on the OBC reservations before it came under legal scrutiny.
“If anything crops up on the OBC reservation later, we will see. As an autonomous institution, we started receiving applications from May 7, the day the state higher secondary results were published,” the official said.
Madhumajari Mandal, the principal of Scottish Church College, said: “The OBC reservation is not applicable to minority institutions like ours.”
Father Dominic Savio, the principal of St Xavier’s College, said: “Our admission process will continue till the end of this month.”
CU has convened a meeting to decide on whether they need to take legal opinion on the OBC reservation issue before starting the undergraduate admissions.
