KOLKATA: Students of Kolkata's prestigious Jadavpur University erupted in protests and gheraoed vice-chancellor Suranjan Das on Tuesday after the university Executive Council decided to do away with entrance exams for admission to six arts subjects in favour of admission on the basis of Class XII marks, despite protests of students and teachers.
While the teachers and students claimed that the move will allow the state government to push Trinamool Congress youth cadres into the Leftist bastion university, education minister Partha Chatterjee said that the move will ensure 'uniformity' in the admission process. Students are admitted to science faculty of JU on the basis of their Class XII results.
Students and a section of teachers of the university have been protesting over the past one week against the move to do away with entrance tests in favour of marks-based admission after a section of teachers raised questions over the legality of such tests.
Questions were also raised on the legality of the arts faculty conducting the entrance exam. Even, dates for exams for six graduation subjects English, Comparative Literature, History, Bengali, Political Science and Philosophy were fixed which now stand cancelled.
Speaking at the press conference regarding the decision, JU registrar Chiranjib Bhattacharjee said: "The Executive Council has decided that entrance exams for admission to the arts subjects will not be held only this year. This decision has been taken to address the legal questions over the exams and not to harass the students awaiting certainty of the admission process. The Executive Council resolves that the admission committee of the faculty of arts is empowered to determine the modality of admission according to Class XII marks of any board as per the requirements of different subjects. Accordingly, the notification of the admission test will be withdrawn."
"This decision has been taken to address the sentiments of the teachers who have seen legal questions being raised on their involvement in the admission process. The Executive Council poses full faith in the teaching community. However, the current students have no role in the admission process but their opinions have been noted," he added.
Earlier, the JU administration devised a 50-50 plan in which 50 per cent of the Class XII marks and 50 per cent of the entrance result marks were planned to be combined to prepare the merit list. However, that plan was scrapped after running into legal hurdles.