As Bengal's central UG portal shuts, female applicants outnumber male
Times of India | 8 July 2024
Image used for representative purpose only KOLKATA: Female students who submitted forms through Bengal's first centralised admission portal (CAP) for the state's undergraduate colleges outnumbered their male counterparts by around 70,000 as the portal closed in the intervening midnight of Sunday and Monday. The portal received around 35 lakh forms from across the country from 5.3 lakh students: nearly 3 lakh female and 2.3 lakh male.
This year, state govt had introduced a single window for undergraduate admissions for 461 colleges and 16 universities - covering 9,46,921 undergraduate seats - across Bengal. It was open for two weeks from June 24.
"Women's participation in higher education has increased remarkably over the past several years," said a higher education department official. "This has been reflected in the overall number of submissions. This year, thanks to the centralised portal, we could get an indication of that. But we will be able to get a clearer picture only after the admission process is over."
Some senior educators and administrators TOI spoke to agreed about increased women's participation in higher education, but added that many male students now often considered four-year degree courses "time-consuming" and "heavy", preferring to opt for job-oriented ones.
'More female applicants a Kanyashree effect'
It's of course a good thing that women's participation is high. But it's also a fact that it is still usual for women to pursue conventional degree-course subjects while males prefer job-oriented technical courses. For a certain section of male students, a four-year degree programme seems time-taking and heavy," said Siuli Sarkar, principal, Lady Brabourne College.
Although the applications were from all across the country, Asutosh College principal Manas Kabi said the higher participation of women was due to the Bengal govt's Kanyashree scheme. "It's a direct effect of the Kanyashree project, which helped female students from financially backward families to enter higher education. Male students, especially after Covid, are more inclined towards job-oriented courses," Kabi said.
New Alipore College principal Jaydeep Sarangi said something similar: a large number of male students, after class XII boards, prefer engineering courses. And that had reflected in the admissions data.
A total of 98,089 applications were received from outside Bengal - from 19,618 students. Data shows the highest number of applications has been received from Bihar (3,50,632), followed by Jharkhand (30,952), Assam (9,529), Uttar Pradesh (5,121) and Odisha (4,252). A significant number of applications have also come from Jammu and Kashmir and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Even on the last day, there were applications from several states outside Bengal.
A higher education department official said, "This is something very positive for us that such a huge number of students from outside Bengal applied to pursue undergraduate courses here. The remarkable number of applications means they have faith in our higher education system."
At a programme on Saturday, state education minister Bratya Basu highlighted that Bengal's degree colleges were attracting students from outside.