West Bengal State Government Announces "No Application Fee" for Admission into Colleges and Universities

Content Curator

The government of West Bengal on Thursday announced that students will not be charged for applying to state-run colleges and universities for admission in undergraduate courses.

As per the official order, no money can be charged from students for providing application forms or prospectus for admission.

The move by the government will bring big relief to the students of the state who are likely to start their higher education journey.

"Let me assert in unambiguous terms, colleges should not take a single rupee under any head from the candidates during admission," Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said.

The education minister also highlighted that colleges can't even charge money for buying prospectus or in any other category.

Moreover, Universities, which directly offer undergraduate courses, cannot charge anything from the candidates.

As per the education minister, students should not be put under any economic stress as they are already faced with hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following this, a notification was released by the Higher Education Department which said, “No charges shall be taken from the students for scanning/uploading of documents for online admission in UG level courses, for providing the application form/prospectus of admission in UG level courses.”

The admission has already begun in many colleges and universities across the state and nation.

West Bengal has become the second state to announce free online admission in state government-aided colleges and universities.

Earlier, the education minister of Tripura, Ram Lal Nath announced free online admission in 22 government colleges, owing to the Covid-19 situation.