An emergency meeting of senior officials of Jadavpur University over the involvement of external experts in the admission procedure, remained inconclusive today.
A spokesman of the Jadavpur University Teachers' Association (JUTA) said the meeting "failed" to arrive at a consensus, and now an Executive Council meeting will be held soon, where the final decision regarding sole involvement of varsity teachers or both varsity teachers-external experts in admission process, will be discussed.
"At today's meeting, we had pointed out to the vice-chancellor that there had been no complaint about any irregularity in JU's admission process-both in humanities and science streams. Then, why this sudden need to involve experts from outside in setting of question papers and evaluating answer sheets of admission tests?" the JUTA member said.
The JU authorities declared the new '50-50 formula' last week, according to which the admission eligibility to humanities streams will be based on 50 per cent of the total marks obtained in admission tests, and 50 per cent of the total marks secured by a candidate in board examinations.
The JUTA member said there were talks about introducing the multiple-choice question format, too, in the new admission test module for humanities.
The association, in a letter to the head of the admission committee, said there is no legal provision for involvement of external experts, authorities or any other entity in JU admission tests, and hence, if any such decision is taken by the admission committee, "it will be in violation of the Act, Statute and Regulations of the University".
Entrance tests for six undergraduate arts courses at JU will be held between July 11 and 14, according to the revised schedule announced last week.
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Meanwhile, another letter signed by 12 personalities from various walks of life, including poet Sankha Ghosh, litterateur Nabanita Dev Sen and academician Sukanto Chowdhury, was submitted to the VC at the meeting.
Stating that JU had followed the time-tested method of admission with repute for years, the letter said teachers of an institution should be the best judges to evaluate the merit of a candidate.
Earlier today, Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said he was in favour of a uniform admission process at JU.
"We had suggested that the admission of students' should be made in line with the admissions of other faculties. Now, the varsity should take the call," he said when asked about today's admission committee meeting.
VC Suranjan Das had said on Monday that the new admission procedures to six humanities streams, involving external experts for setting of question papers, were framed after taking the suggestion of legal experts.
Das could not be contacted today for comments.
The Arts Faculty Students' Union (AFSU) had organised a 44-hour sit-in since June 25, demanding immediate declaration of admission tests to the six humanities streams.
The six streams are Bengali, Philosophy, English, Political Science, Comparative Literature and History.
"We are following the developments closely, and will come up with our observations at the appropriate moment," an AFSU spokesperson said.
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