WBJEEB announces reforms for flexible counselling process in West Bengal

Kolkata: The West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination Board (WBJEEB) has announced significant changes to its counselling process, aimed at providing greater flexibility and guidance to candidates. These updates were revealed following the declaration of results on Thursday, where 92,753 candidates qualified out of the 94,901 who appeared for the entrance test.

One of the key changes is the introduction of fresh registration and choice-filling options during every round of counselling. This means candidates can modify their preferences or register anew in any of the three counselling rounds. Previously, fresh entries were only allowed during the mop-up round after the registration window had closed.

Additionally, students will now have access to admission trends from previous years on the official portal. This feature is intended to help candidates make informed decisions by evaluating their chances at specific colleges before finalizing their choices.

Board officials explained that these revisions aim to reduce errors caused by nervousness during the choice-filling process. “We noticed earlier that most students get nervous while filling in their choices and make mistakes because of that. Now they can change their choices at any time during the three rounds of counselling,” an official stated.

The counselling portal will be launched soon after the WBJEEB receives the seat matrix from the higher education department. The process is expected to begin either in the last week of June or the first week of July.

This year’s WBJEE results also highlighted trends among top rankers. Of the top 10 candidates, eight are from CBSE or CISCE boards, while only two are from the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education. Most of the top 10 plan to pursue studies at IITs or other central institutes, with many opting to move out of Bengal for higher education.

The top five rankers include Shaswat Banerjee from Nalanda Academy Senior Secondary School, Rajasthan, who secured the first position, followed by Souriddha Mandal from Vivekananda Mission School in second place. Umang Bhoot from PURV International School, Durgapur, took the third spot, while Rahul Konar from DPS Newtown School and Sarban Bhattacharya from Garden High School, IISER Kolkata Campus, Nadia, secured the fourth and fifth positions, respectively.

Among the 92,753 qualified candidates, 19,088 are from outside West Bengal, reflecting a growing trend of participation from other states. Last year, 23,850 out-of-state candidates appeared for the exam, out of a total of 1.1 lakh test-takers.

With these reforms, WBJEEB aims to streamline the counselling process and provide candidates with better tools to navigate their higher education decisions.