Jadavpur University and Bengal Engineering and Science University’s refusal to scrape the bottom of the merit list to fill their vacant engineering seats has forced the government to contemplate exempting the Big Two from its order.
Higher education department officials said the exemption could be announced by the end of the week, based on the two institutions’ response to some questions posed by the government regarding their refusal to lower the admission bar.
The breakthrough came about on Monday at a meeting between government officials and the registrars and deans of JU and Besu. “They have been asked to submit certain documents to justify their exclusion from the order to fill vacant seats in accordance with the procedure suggested by the government. We are ready to issue a fresh circular for the two institutions, provided we find merit in their arguments,” the principal secretary of higher education, Satish Tiwary, said.
Sources said the registrars and deans of the two universities put up a strong defence of their stand, basing their arguments on the policy of not compromising on classroom quality and the threat by a section of students to move court if the admission norms were eased for some candidates.
The government asked the university representatives to submit documents in support of their stand by Thursday.
According to a senior official of the higher education department, no exception would be made for private engineering institutes and state-run ones like Kalyani Government Engineering College and Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College, both affiliated to the West Bengal University of Technology.
In twin circulars last week, the government asked all engineering institutions to admit students who had secured a West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination rank but did not attend counselling.
If seats still remained vacant, colleges and universities were supposed to consider those who had cleared the All India Engineering Entrance Examination but did not attend counselling. Engineering aspirants with a minimum aggregate of 45 per cent in the Class XII board exams were to be the last in line for the vacancies, irrespective of whether they had written and cleared the entrance test.
Seats remain vacant in engineering institutions almost every year, prompting the authorities to fall back on repeat counselling and lateral admissions. What is different this year is the government’s attempt to fill all vacant seats by looking beyond the merit list, if need be.
“Around 30 engineering seats in JU and nearly half that number in Besu remained vacant last year. Admitted students quitting to pursue other options created some of these vacancies. But we would rather not have full classrooms than have undeserving candidates share the benches with meritorious students,” a member of the JU faculty said.
This year, 57 seats are vacant in JU and 28 in Besu.
Monday’s meeting apparently ended in a consensus on not lowering the admission bar to such a level that the reputation of the two institutions took a beating. The executive councils of JU and Besu are to meet on Tuesday to discuss the documentation required for the government to issue a notification exempting them from the order. “They will probably submit the papers by Thursday,” an official said.
“We are thankful to education minister Bratya Basu for considering our request,” Besu vice-chancellor Ajoy Roy said.
His JU counterpart P.N. Ghosh hoped the stalemate would end soon.
The topic was also raised in the Assembly by SUCI legislator Tarun Naskar, who teaches at JU’s mechanical engineering department. Naskar urged the education minister not to pressure the two premier engineering institutions into lowering their admission standards.
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