KOLKATA: Agitating students of Jadavpur University (JU) had the last laugh as the administration restored entrance examination to six arts subjects after two marathon meetings at the university campus late on Tuesday evening, downing the curtains on an agitation by teachers and students against the decision taken on July 4 to do away with entrance exams and base admissions only on Class XII results.
Scrapping the July 4 resolution, while the university Executive Committee passed a fresh resolution to implement the earlier proposed 50-50 formula -- where equal weightage would be given on marks obtained in entrance test and in board exams -- the EC could not decide whether the JU professors will have any role in the entrance examinations and left the matter to the admission committee comprising the registrar and dean of arts faculty.
However, university vice-chancellor Suranjan Das and pro-vice chancellor P K Ghosh were not party to the EC resolution giving rise to speculations over that they might soon resign from their posts.
"We will meet the chancellor (Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi). If we cannot run the administration properly we will step down," Das said. Following the decision, the 20 agitating students who were on a hunger strike for more than 96 hours broke their hunger strike. Two of them had to be hospitalised.
"We will take the path of democratic movement whenever there will be attacks on the autonomy of our institution," Arts Faculty Students' Union (AFSU) general secretary Debraj Debnath said.
The fiasco began in June end when education minister Partha Chatterjee said that he was in support of a uniform admission process which is prevalent across the state where students are admitted to arts courses only on the basis of their Class XII results and no separate entrance examinations are conducted.
Even, students are admitted to science faculty of JU on the basis of their Class XII results and no separate entrance examinations are conducted.
The education minister's statement gave rise to speculations among the JU students and teachers that the Trinamool Congress government would try to admit its own youth wing cadres to arts faculty in the Leftist bastion university through the 'uniformisation' of the admission procedure.