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WBJEE Counselling: After conducting the WBJEE centralised counselling, the premier engineering colleges of West Bengal like Jadavpur University (JU) and Calcutta University (CU) have witnessed an unusual increase in the number of B.Tech vacancies. In Jadavpur University, there are still 378 seats out of 1,190 which are vacant. This is a steep rise from the historical average of 150 to 180 vacant seats. Also, Calcutta University has 168 vacant seats out of 478, whereas previously it had only 20 to 30. The reason behind this drastic fall in admissions according to the professors and university authorities is the change in the counselling norms of the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examinations Board (WBJEEB).
According to the new rules, the registration process was open to new candidates in each round. But in this process, the students who had booked their seats but failed to physically verify themselves or make the payment were kept alive in all rounds and hence blocked any possibility of moving the seat for high rankers. Due to the complexity of rules and difficulty faced by students in applying for branch change while holding their earlier seat, high rankers went for NITs and central institutes.
Key Causes of the Record Seat Vacancies
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Flawed Registration Process: WBJEE Board modified its rules to facilitate new candidate registration at each centralized counselling session. In Round 1, over 185 candidates reserved their seats but failed to undertake physical verification/fee payment, thus reserving those seats in all the further rounds without withdrawing/reallocating them.
Course Upgradation Hindrances: Students allotted seats in Round 1 and those desiring to change their preferences in subsequent rounds faced difficulty. They were first asked to withdraw from their allotted courses and then to apply afresh, which involved risks.
Academic Timetable Delay & Migration to NITs: The ambiguities related to the counselling timetable and beginning of academic sessions compelled the best-ranked candidates to move to National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and other central universities whose academic sessions start by late August.
Effect on Core Departments: The core departments at JU suffered badly; more than 20 seats remained vacant in Computer Science, while in Electrical Engineering almost 50 seats were left unoccupied.
