KOCHI: Things are getting heated at Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat), with Vice-Chancellor K N Madhusoodanan staying firm on the stand to conduct intermediary examinations as scheduled online saying any delay will tarnish the varsity’s rankings.This has not gone down well with students and student organisations like KSU and SFI with the latter two deciding to launch protests against the move. Amid all this, tweets using the hashtag #cusatexams crossed the 50,000 mark on Monday.
A Cusat student from Bihar said not everyone has 4G connection and uninterrupted internet. “I hail from a village in Bihar. To get decent network, I have to go to the temple and find a particular spot in its courtyard,” he told TNIE. Students hailing from far-off places like Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh – who along with students from Bihar and Odisha constitute around 30 per cent of the varsity’s student strength in BTech and other courses – are facing the same problem.
“Students in Kerala are better off. They are helping us by sending notes and other study material,” said a Cusat student from Jammu and Kashmir. Youth Congress district vice-president Ashker Panayapally said though members of the KSU Cusat unit had met the VC to apprise him of the situation, he only responded by saying the examinations needed to be held or the university will lose its standing among the top educational institutions in India.
Ashker said KSU members were in possession of the 2,000 emails that Cusat students have sent to the VC, Pro-VC, principal (School of Engineering) and the controller of the examinations.“We are neither against teachers nor Cusat. While it is good to see the university reach great heights, it should not be done at the cost of students’ future,” he said. “The teachers have been asked to prepare IIT-level question papers; those that can’t be searched on Google. However, what about teaching the portions first? The VC is not ready to answer,” he said.
SFI’s Cusat unit secretary Prejith K Babu said, “When Kerala Technological University can cancel its semester examinations, what was preventing Cusat? We were pinning our hopes on Monday’s Syndicate meeting. However, nothing came out of it,” he said.SFI members will stage a sit-in in front of the Cusat administrative block on Wednesday, said Prejith. KSU members will take out a march to the block. The protests will be held in adherence to Covid-19 protocol with 15 and 10 members, respectively.
Watching Covid situation: VC
Cusat VC K N Madhusoodanan said since Covid-19 cases were spiking day by day, they were closely studying the situation. “If it merits any change in examination dates, we will do the needful. As of now, the examinations will be held as per schedule,” he said. He said Cusat was a student-friendly and employee-friendly university. “We are not targeting anybody,” he said.