Kolkata: As the deadline approached for receiving applications for undergraduate admission across state-aided colleges, there was a surge, with around 23 lakh applications submitted through the centralised admission portal. Over 4 lakh candidates registered for 9 lakh UG seats, and more than 2 lakh of them were female applicants. he portal will be live till June 1.Last year, the portal closed with 20.6 lakh applications and 3.6 lakh registrations. There was also a two-month delay due to an OBC-related legal deadlock. This time, the portal opened much earlier than in the last two years and the admission process began within a few days of the higher secondary results being announced.Out of the 4.2 lakh registrations received till Sunday, 2.4 lakh are female candidates. Last year, the female candidate count was around 2.1 lakh out of a total 3.6 lakh registrations. The trend is more or less the same compared to data from the last three years, where over 50% of students are female. In 2024, out of 5.3 lakh candidates, roughly 3 lakh were female. A senior official of the higher education department said, “It has been a trend in recent times that more girls are opting for higher education.”Several college principals said a major reason for this trend was that girl students show more interest in general streams while male students are more inclined towards technical education.A principal said, “It is good that the trend is continuing, but the decreasing interest among boys in pursuing general courses is a concern. Many of them are worried about the future and want job security after completing UG programmes, prompting them to choose job-oriented subjects or technical courses.”The principal of another city college felt the higher education department and state universities should sit together to re-examine subject combinations. “The trend is good, but we are still concerned about how many will continue with these subjects. This year, the admission portal went live on time and a good number of applications have been received. But there are some subjects where the number of applications is very low, similar to previous years. The exact scenario will become clear only after classes commence.”
