UG admission portal logs over 1.6k applicants from outside Bengal
Times of India | 24 June 2025
Kolkata: West Bengal's centralised UG admission portal received over 1,600 applicants from outside states, including Karnataka and Kerala. Technical modifications were implemented to accommodate different marking systems, particularly after Karnataka applicants reported issues with their 125-mark system. The state higher education department adjusted the portal accordingly for seamless admissions.Applications came from students in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, the north-east, Kerala and Karnataka. Department officials stated that numbers are changing frequently. In first five days, 11.4 lakh applications have been submitted by 2.3 lakh candidates. Among them, around 2,000 aspirants are from outside Bengal.Education minister Bratya Basu said that till 6 pm on sixth day, 2,31,854 students submitted 11,40,696 applications, of which 1,658 are from other states.Sources said a number of calls came from Karnataka as several students from that state wanted to apply for UG programmes through the centralised portal. Karnataka state board conducts exams of 125 marks in languages, while the Bengal board conducts exams of 100 marks in each paper.Officials, who are part of these programmes, are pleased that students from different states are eager to apply in Bengal colleges. An official said, "We knew that applications from different states would come like last year, but it was unexpected for us that such a huge number of applications would come from southern states like Karnataka and Kerala, as we are experiencing this time."A higher education dept official said, "Students from all over India have applied through centralised portal to pursue UG courses in our state, even from S India."The online admission portal started functioning from Wednesday, and within a week, the portal's reach increased to 15 lakh hits on the site. Earlier, only some reputable colleges received students from other states, but from last year, the number increased as a single portal for applying to multiple colleges attracted students from different states. Some principals say this is good for higher education, while some indicate that there will be a gap between the number who applied and the number of candidates who will take admission.