Given 25 options, candidates take 5 on an avg on UG admission portal
Times of India | 20 June 2025
12 Kolkata: Every undergraduate candidate is opting for four to five options, including subjects and colleges, from 25 available choices at 460-odd institutes in Bengal, shows data from Centralised Admission Portal in the first two days. The portal, which opened at 10 am on Wednesday, received over 2.8 lakh applications and over 60,000 registrations till Thursday evening. "On the second day, by 6 pm, 61,155 students registered on the centralized online portal... and submitted 2,85,497 applications. Among the registered students, 374 are residents of other states," education minister Bratya Basu posted on X. Candidates this year are following a different approach than that last year. In the initial round, students are being allowed to secure only 10 course preferences at one go. The system will subsequently display the 15 other options one by one. Students are to confirm each choice by selecting ‘Yes' before proceeding to the next one. . A higher education official said, "We had hoped for a higher number of applications in the first few days as students eagerly waited for the portal to open. But it's found that students are opting for four-five choices at a time, though they can click on more. The number may go up later on."But principals don't seem alarmed by the supposed fewer choices. Lady Brabourne College principal Siuli Sarkar said, "It is natural for students to opt for four to five choices. Their focused preferences reflect their vision. Since students nowadays are mature and this time, they got more than sufficient time to research about choices of subjects and colleges, I feel it is a conscious decision to limit their applications to four to five." A south Kolkata College principal felt providing 25 choices was "way too much". "Applying for four-five choices is fine. Students focused on subjects and institutes often keep their choices limited," the principal said. But Surendranath College principal Indranil Kar advised candidates to apply to at least eight to 10 institutes. "As the competition is tough, I would suggest candidates to apply to at least eight to 10 colleges to be on the safe side. It will ensure admission to at least one. We often find a student fails to secure any seat as he or she applies to a limited number of places, say three or four." Statistics from the 2024 UG admission data indicated most selected 10-15 course combinations or less.