Crash Course in CHAOS THEORY

A new online admission system throws Gujarat's college season out of gear, hits lakhs of students

- By Jumana Shah

CAMPUSES ACROSS GUJARAT are caught in a sort of spacetime wobble. Over a month into academic season, admissions to undergraduate courses in state and aided universities have not concluded, even though the 12th board results came out in mid-May. Thousands of seats are still vacant, including in high-ranking colleges.

What's wobbly? A digital mechanism introduced by the higher education department: the Gujarat Centralised Admission System (GCAS). Over 365,000 students have registered on its portal. But by the end of 22 rounds conducted till the last week of July, only 56 per cent of the 471,000 undergraduate seats had been filled. Three additional rounds have been held since, but little progress has been made—due to technical glitches, poor process design and the usual snafus with coordination, server crashes et al.

This is the second year the government is attempting to introduce this system for admissions to undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes across 15 state government universities and their affiliated colleges. Last year, after eight chaotic and futile rounds, the government had handed the process back to colleges. This year, they seem adamant on seeing it through. Thousands of panicked students, losing hope in the newfangled system, have taken admission under the self-financed quota or opted for expensive private colleges.