Siliguri, May 26: North Bengal University will introduce online admissions to under-graduate courses in all 54 colleges affiliated to it from the next academic session, authorities said today.

Somnath Ghosh, the vice-chancellor of NBU, said the Bengal higher education department was introducing the system of online admissions in all state-aided varsities from the 2014-2015 academic year.

The VC said he would attend a meeting convened by the higher education department with the state varsities in Calcutta tomorrow to work out the modalities of the online admission process.

“The NBU has been given Rs 16 lakh by the higher education department for starting the online admission systems. We have already held two meetings in the past two months with college principals and teachers-in-charge of the 54 affiliated colleges in this regard. Whether colleges will conduct the online admission individually or it will be done in a centralised way by the varsities will be decided at tomorrow’s meeting,” said Ghosh.

He added that Webel, the nodal agency for information and technology of the state government, would be assisting the varsities to implement the online admission system. So far, students have been collecting admission forms manually from colleges and the same would be submitted to the institutions once they are filled up.

NBU officials said the online admission system would bring about transparency and prevent back door entry of the applicants to colleges because of pressure from student unions.

“There is lot of chaos during the admission process in every college. Students’ unions exert pressure on the college authorities for back door admissions and merit takes a back seat. However, in the online admission system, details of the applicants have to be published on college websites and this will ensure the admission of only meritorious students,” said an NBU official.