Kolkata: Vice-chancellors of two state-run universities — Jadavpur University (JU) and Calcutta University (CU) — have urged the state govt to scrap the WBJEE online decentralised counselling and allow the universities to conduct the traditional offline decentralised counselling to fill up the large number of vacant seats.
In the last few years, 150-180 seats remained vacant at JU after the centralised counselling, which the university filled during decentralised counselling. The situation was similar for CU, where 20-30 seats remained vacant after centralised counselling and was filled up during decentralised counselling by the university.
JU VC Chiranjib Bhattacharjee said, “I have written to the higher education department to allow us to conduct offline decentralised counselling immediately to fill the vacant seats based on ranks. VC of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology (MAKAUT) Tapas Chakraborty said, “First-year classes should start early so that the teaching-learning process is not hampered.” It is causing a loss for the state and affecting the reputation of the university.
This is the first time that West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination Board is conducting online decentralised counselling in a centralised way.
Earlier, decentralised counselling for BTech courses against vacancies used to be conducted by the respective institutions based on WBJEE ranks.
The phase 2 online decentralised counselling ends on Friday.
A higher education department official said, “No decision has been made yet on subsequent phases of decentralised counselling. Once we get the seat matrix of vacant seats, we will decide on the next course of action. The whole process is being conducted in a fair and transparent way to ensure there is no merit violation.”