The West Bengal Higher Education department has decided to set up a centralised online admission portal for undergraduate courses in state-run and -aided colleges and universities. In a circular issued on Wednesday, the department said that a 10-member committee consisting of Technology Head of MAKAUT Pritimoy Sanyal, Dinabandhu Andrews College Principal Dr Somnath Mukherjee, Additional Director of Public Instructions Madhumita Manna, among others, will monitor the implementation of the portal in coordination with officials of the Higher Education department. “The department of Higher Education has decided to use a centralised web-based online admission portal developed by Webel Technology Ltd for the Under Graduate general degree courses in West Bengal for academic sessions beginning 2023-24 in all government, government-aided colleges, unitary universities, and state-aided affiliating universities,” reads the circular. Notably, the state government had last year tried to bring in a centralised online portal for the admission process in colleges and universities, but the initiative did not go through as the institutes at that time did not have the technological support required for the centralised system. The system will come into effect from this academic session after the publication of Class XII board exam results by the end of May. As part of the new system, a student can apply to whichever state-run or -aided college/university offering UG course he/she wants by logging into a single portal rather than logging into the admission portal of a particular institution. The centralised process, however, excludes autonomous colleges, minority educational institution colleges, training colleges, law colleges and universities offering courses like fine arts, crafts, dance, music, engineering, pharmacy, nursing, medical colleges and self-financing private colleges.
