Amid portal issue, colleges begin offline registrations for new session

Advertisement

Amritsar, June 12

Amid the standoff between non-government aided colleges in Punjab and the state government on the issue of centralised admission portal, several colleges in the city have opened admissions/ registrations for new academic session through the offline mode.

All major colleges participating in the boycott of centralized admission portal, including DAV College, BBK DAV College, Khalsa College, Hindu College and more,

are registering students through walk-ins despite the state government notification that it’s mandatory for non-government colleges to register on the centralized admission portal.

While most colleges are sticking to the previously applied process of admissions, Sanjeev Sharma, principal, Hindu College, says the college management has directed them to not participate in the centralized admission portal.

“It’s a matter of survival of colleges as most colleges across Punjab, whether private or government, are witnessing almost a 50 per cent decline in undergraduate student strength. The Delhi model cannot be replicated here as the ground realities are quite different. In Delhi, for every 50,000 undergraduate seats, there are at least one to two lakh applicants from across the country, while in Punjab there are surplus seats and no students. Now, the government is also saying that they will stop giving grants to the colleges that would fail to register on online portal. It would deepen the crisis and mistrust between the colleges, teachers and government,” he said.

DAV College Principal Dr Amardeep Gupta shared that the high number of dropout rate in undergraduate courses due to overseas migration and decline in choosing traditional courses like BA, B Sc or B Com, colleges are facing shortage of students. “Earlier, courses like B Com used to have admissions based on merit, but now it’s like the first come first served process as most colleges across the state are facing low strength of students.” He said the fact that public universities were now offering undergraduate courses had also impacted on distribution of students in undergraduate courses.

The centralized admission system in B Ed courses by the Punjab Government three years ago did not yield good results as according to official reports more than 50 per cent seats went vacant even after multiple rounds of counselling. While GNDU has opened admissions for the new session as per its own charter, it will notify colleges on the last date of admission for various colleges.