Students to travel to other colleges to give exams

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, May 3, 2007
The students of all the private engineering and management colleges in the state will have to appear for their exams in some other private college from June. And they will have to make the trip twice a year, as there are 2 semesters in an academic year.
To begin with first and second year students are not being allotted home centres but in 6 months, from the next semester, students from the first and final years will also not be allotted home centres.
The West Bengal University of Technology (WBUT), to which all private engineering and management colleges in the state are affiliated, has taken this decision, which is to be implemented from the semester exams starting this June. The circular notifying colleges of this decision have been sent already.
Recruiters have often questioned the quality of graduates from private institutes, since they have been given home centres. The move by the university will definitely address this issue. The vice-chancellor of the university, A.R. Thakur, however refused to term this action of the university as a quality check on private engineering and management colleges in the state. “By not allowing home centres we are not trying to improve our quality. Instead, we are demonstrating the quality of the students. If the students study well then their results will not depend on their exam centre,” Thakur said.
Out of 105 private colleges in the state, 62 are engineering colleges and the rest offer management courses. To set the ball rolling, students of 80 private colleges will not get home centres. The university has allowed students of the remaining 25 colleges to appear for their exams in their own colleges due to the non-availability of a private college nearby. There are over 65,000 students studying in various colleges under WBUT, of which there are about 22,000 students studying in their first year.
But students of various private engineering colleges are agitated about the move. The authorities however, are no ready to listen to their objections. “Students will have to take the exam wherever they are asked to. If required, they will have to go to the moon to take the exam. They have no right to protest under any pretext. The transport system is good in the state and we are allotting seats by calculating its distance from the place where the students study,” said Thakur.
“If they wanted to implement such a decision, they should have given us some sort of notification, and not have done this just one month before the exams. Moreover, there are many students who travel over 50 km to reach his/her college and the examination centre may be further away from his/her home. What will he do?” asked an engineering student of college in Agarpara.
But WBUT is adamant about their decision. “If younger students appearing for the HS and Madhyamik can appear for their exam from a different school, then it should not be a problem for students who are doing their graduation. Appearing for exams at home centres is as good as taking it at home. If students of professional degree courses all over the country can do this, then it will not be a problem for anyone here,” said Thakur.
mou.hindustantimes@yahoo.com