The first three days of undergraduate admissions through the Centralised Admission Portal (CAP) have witnessed strong student participation, with admissions crossing the one lakh mark. Among the various disciplines, humanities and multidisciplinary programmes have emerged as the most sought-after choices.

Multidisciplinary degree courses received the largest share of admissions, accounting for around 2.1 lakh seat allocations from the total pool of 3.8 lakh available seats. Traditional humanities subjects also attracted significant interest. Bengali led among individual disciplines with more than one lakh seat allocations, followed by History, Political Science, and English.

The admission figures indicate a continuing trend in higher education preferences, where arts and humanities subjects remain more popular than science streams. None of the five most preferred disciplines belong to the core science category.

Among the ten most popular subjects, Geography was the only field with a science-related component to secure a place. In contrast, subjects such as Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry attracted comparatively fewer applicants. While the Higher Education Department has not released detailed enrolment figures for these courses, available data suggests limited demand for the traditional science disciplines.

Educationists have pointed to curriculum relevance as a key factor influencing student choices. According to former college administrators, students increasingly favour programmes that are perceived to offer stronger employment prospects. They argue that updating academic syllabi and introducing contemporary subjects could help improve enrolment in underrepresented disciplines. Examples cited include the introduction of emerging fields such as Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security in autonomous colleges, which have reportedly generated considerable student interest.

Experts have also observed that some students prefer the flexibility of multidisciplinary degree programmes over specialised four-year major courses. Concerns regarding limited employment opportunities and irregular recruitment in sectors such as teaching may be contributing to this shift in preference.

Despite the uneven demand across disciplines, state higher education authorities remain optimistic about the overall admission process. Since admissions commenced earlier this year, officials expect participation levels to improve further. The Education Department is expected to conduct a detailed analysis of CAP data to assess trends and guide future policy decisions.