Bengal’s UG Admissions Struggle: Over Half the Seats Remain Vacant Despite Final Mop-Up Round

Despite multiple rounds of undergraduate admission efforts across West Bengal, a massive number of seats remain unfilled in colleges throughout the state. In the final mop-up round alone, about 63,000 seat allotments were made across 460 institutions — yet the response from students has been underwhelming.

The centralised admission portal (CAP), which managed the entire process, received over 1 lakh new applications during the mop-up window held from September 10 to 13. Still, fewer than 9,000 candidates actually completed registration, highlighting a significant drop-off between initial interest and confirmed participation.

Admissions from this final round closed on Wednesday, with further opportunities for seat upgradation extending until September 23. Classes for the new academic session are scheduled to begin on September 25.

However, the bigger concern lies in the volume of seats still vacant — a problem that has persisted since the first phase of admissions. After the initial round, nearly 2 lakh allocated seats were left unclaimed. Now, projections indicate that more than half of the state’s 9.4 lakh UG seats could go unfilled this year.

Institutions are feeling the impact. Many colleges are now bracing to run the upcoming academic year with enrollments far below capacity. Some expect to operate at under 50% student strength. According to one college principal, who preferred to remain unnamed, the delayed admission cycle drove students to private institutions or out-of-state universities, leaving government and aided colleges struggling to attract enrollees.

The situation is more pronounced in certain subjects. Sharmila Mitra, principal of Behala College, noted that entire departments such as Sanskrit, Electronics, and Philosophy have barely seen any admissions, despite offering only 30 to 40 seats per subject. Her college, which recently received autonomous status but was still part of the centralised process, has filled just half of its available 1,000 seats.

While some vacant seats are attributed to reservations that go unclaimed each year, a senior official from the higher education department acknowledged that legal delays played a role in derailing the timeline this year. "The process was held up due to a court case, which was beyond the department’s control," he said.

As institutions prepare to begin classes with empty seats and reduced student numbers, the challenges of centralised admissions — particularly when combined with procedural delays — are becoming increasingly apparent.