Home centres retained for private engg colleges

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, October 30

The students of private engineering colleges may get to take their next semester exam starting December 3 from their home centres.
The West Bengal University of Technology (WBUT), which governs all the 58 private engineering colleges in the state, though wanted to scrap do away with the practice of awarding home centres but failed. “We want to scrap home centres but it would not be possible from December,” said S. R. Islam, registrar of WBUT.
The issue will be raised in the university’s executive council meeting next week. The main stumbling block is that about 20 per cent of institutions located in North Bengal do not have another engineering college nearby for students to take their exam. Engineering colleges in Malda, Siliguri, Jalpaiguri, Dooars, Cooch Behar and West Midnapore are facing this problem.
The principals of most institutions have already informed authorities that unless away exam centre is given to all colleges they would not want the university to implement it. Many colleges have also sighted infrastructure problems for hosting exams from another college.
WBUT had tried to rent non-engineering colleges hosting the exams. But problems have coped up here too. “It would not be a problem to rent colleges during December as there are holidays. But our next semester exam is in June and it will coincide with exams of non-engineering colleges. So this cannot be a permanent solution,” said Islam.
About 70,000 students would be taking the exam in December. The university had tried to do away with home centres in June this year but they backtracked after strong students’ protest. “If the university has to do away with home centres then it should be implemented everywhere. Why will we go to another college when our counterparts have a home advantage,” said a student of Narula Institute of Technology.
A section of teachers at WBUT too feel similarly. “Jadavpur University and Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur have home centres for their students. But can anyone raise questions about the credibility of exams. A student who is a cheat will do it anywhere,” said a source in the university. The university however has decided to send more visiting teams to the colleges during the semester exams.
Mou.Chakarborty@hindustantimes.com