With student unrest over issuance of original certificates by Regional College of Management (RCM) refusing to die down, it has been decided to address the controversy at a high level board meeting of the Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) on May 7.
The BPUT sources disclosed it on Tuesday, a day after RCM students were roughed up by the city police while they were staging protests near Lower PMG and in front of the Governor’s House.
The findings of the academic audit conducted by the OJEE at the behest of the university will be submitted before the State Government, the sources said.
The students have been protesting for more than 70 days demanding original certificates for their course. After the clash between the police and RCM students late on Monday, four students were hospitalised with serious injuries. MCA student Manas Ranjan reportedly lost a part of his finger during the lathicharge. “Police manhandled the students without any provocation. Even the girls were beaten up,” said MBA student Raza Quadir.
BPUT Registrar Mihir Nayak said about 90 per cent of the procedural formalities required to issue original certificates have been completed.
“The students also need to understand that a four-year-long problem will take time to be resolved,” he added and urged the students to have patience. A majority of the work involved academic audit of the college and verification of the student database.
A senior State Government official said a provision has to be put in place for regularisation of the admissions which took place from 2009.
“Since it has been established that the admissions between 2009 and now were unlawful, the norms have to be changed to regularise this intake. Without this regularisation, the certificates cannot be issued,” the official said.
The academic audit and student verification has reportedly brought forth a few irregularities in admissions which will be discussed at the board meeting on May 7. The decision of BPUT’s board will be passed on to the Employment and Technical Education and Training (ETET) department.
Though the final decision on the matter will be taken by the Policy Planning Body (PPB), no deadline has been set for its meeting.