KOLKATA: Colleges affiliated to Calcutta University , which have initiated the process for a fresh round of admissions, are simultaneously chalking out a plan to provide academic support to those who will be joining late after missing out on at least four weeks of classes. The fresh process was started to fill up vacancies in their undergraduate courses following the state’s directive.Earlier this week, the government decided to extend the admission deadline for all colleges and universities till August 20 to fill up the vacant seats. According to a rough estimate, there are more than 8,000 vacancies in several colleges across the city. In most colleges, it will take another two weeks to invite fresh applications, scrutinize them and publish the merit list.“This issue was discussed at length in our admission sub-committee meetings in the past few days,” said the principal of a north Kolkata college. “If we assume that the fresh applicants will join from the second week of August, even then they would be missing out on at least four weeks. Many of them will need help to catch up with the others,” he added.The situation could affect a lot of students in institutions like Derozio Memorial College, where almost 40%- 45% seats are vacant, and Vivekananda College, which has close to 150 empty seats.“We have discussed this in our internal meetings. The students will be provided special assistance so they do not miss out on their syllabus. The modalities of how it will be done will be decided in subsequent meetings,” said Dibyendu Talapatra, principal of Derozio Memorial College.According to the academic calendar of CU, colleges should commence classes for the first semester in the first week of July.“A considerable part of the syllabus will already have been covered by the time the new entrants join. Many colleges are stretched for resources and it will be difficult for them to allot classrooms and teachers for special classes. Many colleges are also conducting their internal exams, which takes up a considerable amount of resources,” said the principal of a south Kolkata college.Some colleges, like Bhawanipore Education Society, where very few seats are vacant in the under-raduate courses, will wrap up the entire process before the end of July so that those who join late do not miss out on classes.“We have already issued the notice inviting fresh applications for the vacant seats on our website. We want to complete the process before the end of the month so that those who join late do not miss any class,” said Miraj Shah, the vice-chairman of the college.

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