Ahmedabad: With just a day left for the deadline to register under the Gujarat Common Admission Services (GCAS), undergraduate admissions across the state have witnessed only a moderate response so far, raising concerns over a large number of vacant seats in colleges and universities.Against 5.5 lakh undergraduate seats available across govt universities and select private institutions, around 2.95 lakh students had registered on the GCAS portal till Wednesday. Of these, nearly 2.5 lakh students have completed the process by paying the required registration fees, effectively confirming their applications.The figures indicate that confirmed registrations currently account for barely half of the total available undergraduate seats. Among the applicants, around 62,000 students have filled choices for colleges affiliated with Gujarat University.GCAS, the state’s centralised admission system, is being implemented for admissions in all govt universities as well as some private universities in Gujarat.Sources in the education sector said many students may have opted for direct admissions in private universities instead of going through the GCAS process, which several applicants have described as lengthy and cumbersome.Officials believe the numbers may improve slightly on the final day of registration, but even if more than 25,000 additional students complete the process, admissions are still expected to remain significantly below the total seat capacity.Anticipating low enrolment in the initial phase, authorities have already announced multiple rounds of fresh registrations. The second round will remain open from May 30 to June 6. The third round is scheduled from June 8 to June 13, while the fourth round will be conducted between June 15 and June 20.Meanwhile, GCAS authorities have introduced a key relaxation for applicants by allowing students to change their admission category on the portal from May 26 onwards. Students wishing to shift categories — such as from reserved or PwD to general category — can do so by paying an additional fee of Rs 150. Similar modifications for other categories have also been permitted.Authorities also clarified that students awaiting their non-creamy layer certificates can still apply through GCAS, provided they submit the required documents at the time of confirming admission in colleges.
