West Bengal Department of Higher Education will set up centralised web-based online portal courses for admission to UG degrees in state-aided and state-run educational institutions.

In a circular, the department stated that a 10-member committee consisting of Technology Head of MAKAUT Pritimoy Sanyal, Additional Director of Public Instructions Madhumita Manna, Dinabandhu Andrews College Principal Dr. Somnath Mukherjee, and others would observe the execution of the ‘centralised web-based online admission portal’ in coordination with Higher Education department officials.

One of the notices said the department of Higher Education has chosen to operate a centralised online admission portal created by Webel Technology Ltd for the UG general degree courses in West Bengal from 2023-2024 academic sessions in all government-run, state-aided affiliating universities, government-aided colleges, and unitary universities.

This measure does not include autonomous colleges, training colleges, law colleges, minority educational institution colleges, and universities delivering courses like engineering, fine arts, dance, music, crafts, pharmacy, nursing, medical colleges, and self-financing private colleges, it explained.

A Higher Education department official said the system, to be enforced from this academic session, when the admission procedure will begin after the publication of higher secondary and other XII (10+2) board examination results, will deny the possibility of interference of college unions in the admission procedure to undergraduate courses and guarantee total justice and transparency.

As part of the newly introduced system, a student can apply to whichever state-run, state-aided college or university delivers their desired UG course by logging into a single portal instead of logging into the admission portal of a particular institution which will not authorize them to check in others.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) issued a notice to universities and colleges to observe a Common University Entrance Test – Undergraduate (CUET-UG), but the West Bengal model, relevant to state-run and funded institutions in the West Bengal, is not the same as CUET-UG and created with the state’s precise conditions in mind, the official described.