: The number of undergraduate applications received by city colleges and universities this year has dropped by 30%-40% compared to that last year. Submission of forms was closed on Friday.
One big reason for the drop in applications, campus authorities said, was that the full-fledged return of offline board exams and the consequent dip in scores, compared to that in two previous years. Moreover, many of the institutes have set stringent criteria, which have filtered out several applications at the very initial stage.
In 2020, when the Covid pandemic broke out, several papers of different boards were suspended midway and in 2021, no board exam was held. These candidates' scores were calculated on various formulae adapted by the boards, which considered different factors, such as internal assessments and even the schools' earlier performances. That, many said, had pushed up the boards scores the last two years, especially in 2021. Most college principals were concerned about the drop in the number of submissions this year compared to that last year, but some pointed out 2021 was an exceptional year. Students secured high marks because of the formulae and that impacted the college merit lists, they said.
Maulana Azad College has reported 26,000 forms, while they received 41,000 last year. An admission committee official of the college said, "Last year was exceptional and can't be compared with any year. Students got high marks and they filled forms for multiple subjects at multiple colleges. This year, candidates could apply according to the cut-offs fixed by the colleges." Echoing him, Seth Anandram Jaipuria College principal Asok Mukhopadhyay said, "There is a dip in applications but it was expected. The deluge of forms last two years was an aberration due to the pandemic."
To ensure a level playing ground for all, Presidency University, which is admitting students on the basis of boards scores this year, has disallowed boards candidates of previous years from submitting forms this time. Last year, Presidency received 58,000 forms against 665 UG seats; the number was around 39,000 forms at the end of submissions.
At Lady Brabourne, applications have been good in certain subjects. "We have received a lot of applications in subjects, such as English, zoology, political science, history, geography and microbiology," said principal Siuli Sarkar.
Surendranath College has received over 33,000 forms this year, while it was 54,000 last time. This is the lowest applications the college has received in the past seven-eight years. "We generally receive a huge number of forms as students from districts prefer our college for its proximity to station," said principal Indranil Kar, wondering whether students were losing interest in degree courses. Scottish Church College, too, has received 35,000-odd applications this time, much less than 58,000 last year.
This year, many candidates appeared for Common University Entrance Tests, the new all-India UG admission test. "Every year, at the end of the admission procedure, we see some seats remain vacant. It happened even last year, despite the deluge of applications. This year, the number of vacant seats might increase as a certain percentage will take admission in other states through CUET," an official said.
