Is Bengal’s Higher Education System Losing Its Radiance? A Wake-Up Call Behind Empty College Seats

It’s that time of year again — admission season. But in West Bengal, something is off. The government has only recently extended the deadline for college applications to July 15, and the excuse proffered — “student convenience” — just scratches the surface. The true tale appears far more disturbing: thousands of college seats remain empty, and the state’s previously dependable higher education system seems to be slipping from its hold on young minds.

Let’s be honest — the figures don’t lie. Only 3.2 lakh students have logged onto the centralised admission portal, a portal that was inaugurated a year ago with great haste, assuring transparency, convenience, and speed. But for a state with more than 90 lakh students in Class 12 alone in the recent few years, the number is disappointing, if not alarming. And on top of that, the 18.24 lakh number of applications — that’s hardly sufficient to bring hope, and only 2,800+ non-Bengali students have been interested. It’s not a system glitch — it’s a reflection of dwindling faith.

To add to the woes, the late opening of the admission portal this year — because of a lingering legal battle over OBC reservation — appears to have compelled students to seek alternative options. And “elsewhere” increasingly implies other states. Bengal’s brightest minds are catching trains to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Bhubaneswar — in pursuit not only of better education, but of better safety, faculty, and employment opportunities.

Within classrooms, instructors are seeing what numbers cannot indicate: disappearing students. Departments which had hundreds of applicants are getting a dribble now. Some have dwindled to a third of what they had last year.

Students now aren’t just pursuing degrees. They’re pragmatic — taking vocational courses, skill-based training, or direct employment. The traditional route of a degree, with its old curriculum and prolonged, unsure admissions, appears more like a bet than a surety.

What’s tragic is the disconnect. Bengal has talent. It has institutes with rich heritages. But between policy slippage, safety issues, and a shifting youth psyche, the connect is weakening.

If this deadline extension is intended as a temporary solution, it will not suffice. What we require is radical self-reflection — not merely about how students apply, but why they are choosing not to.

Bengal’s education system needs to reinvent itself — or else face being made redundant by the very youth that it once held its head high serving.