Calcutta University will admit students of its affiliated colleges to its postgraduate departments based on an equal weightage to the admission test and the undergraduate score, ending the practice of mark-based entry, said the university’s registrar.

Students at Calcutta University-affiliated colleges will graduate after completing the third year in July.

They will be enrolled in a two-year postgraduate programme and will be screened based on their admission test scores and undergraduate performance, said CU registrar Debasis Das.

Until last year, students of the affiliated colleges, commonly referred to as “home students”, were admitted to the postgraduate programme based solely on marks.

But when students who enrolled in a four-year undergraduate programme in 2023 will have the option to exit the programme in July after the third year and will apply for admission to a two-year postgraduate programme, they have to clear admission tests.

“A combination of equal weightage given to the admission test and undergraduate performance is the best way to identify bright students for the master’s level. Marks alone cannot determine a student’s potential to pursue a postgraduate programme,” said Das.

According to officials, 60% of the postgraduate seats at CU are reserved for the students of the affiliated colleges.

They said 40% of the master’s seats at CU are set aside for students who will be coming from other universities.

“These students will be screened to pursue a master’s programme entirely based on their performance at the admission test,” said the CU registrar.

Under the National Education Policy (NEP), which necessitated the launch of the four-year undergraduate programme, a student who has the option to exit at the end of the third year will be admitted to a two-year postgraduate programme.

The four-year undergraduate programme allows a student to exit after the third-year.

Students who will be graduating with honours combined with research at the end of the fourth-year will have to pursue a master’s for one year only. “Such students will be admitted to the one-year PG programme based on marks only,” the registrar said.

Most of the postgraduate departments want to screen students seeking admission to two-year postgraduate programmes through tests, a CU official said.

Department heads, particularly in the humanities, are of the view that marks do not reflect a student’s aptitude for pursuing a master’s degree.

“They want to screen all students — both from CU-affiliated colleges and other universities — through admission tests,” the official said.

“For the CU affiliated students, performance till
the sixth semester will also be taken into account,” the
official said.

The decision to screen students based on admission tests at CU has been taken at a time when marquee institutions like St Xavier’s College have decided that it would admit students from other colleges in the final year of its four-year undergraduate programme to pursue research with honours through admission tests if seats are
vacant.

In January, nine of the sixteen departments of Presidency University — chemistry, Bengali, political science, history, economics, life science, astrophysics, statistics, and philosophy — proposed that they want to admit students at the undergraduate level via tests conducted by the departments themselves.

A CU official said students graduating with research in 2027 will not be required to write any admission
tests while getting into the one-year postgraduate programme.

“Since they will be undertaking research in their fourth year, we do not want them to prove their proficiency by writing any admission
test. But a formal decision
is yet to be taken,” said the
official.