Nagpur: Even as aspirants and teachers slammed the Nagpur University (NU) over poor results in MPhil entrance test held on September 1, it has come to fore that several students were interested in others MPhil subjects like Marathi and Political Science but the university didn’t allow them to appear in the exam.
On September 2, TOI had reported that 21 students had applied while only 13 were allowed to appear and no one cleared the entrance. It was not clear why the seven applications were not considered suitable for the entrance, which was held at short notice and in a hurry by the NU.
TOI found that the seven applications were turned down as the students had opted for different courses other than social work. However, the NU has not officially scrapped MPhil yet admissions are being denied on the grounds that it doesn’t have the faculty to teach the course as well as lack of takers.
“The exam notice appeared on August 28. The exam was held within three days. The VC and Pro-VC must set an example by appearing for MET and clearing it within three days,” the students said.
Director of Examinations and Evaluation board Neeraj Khaty said the exam section was not sure if the subjects were still offered by affiliated colleges or permission was granted to run them. “The MET was held only for social work. No other option was provided in the online form too. Yet, students had applied for social work and come with the request to change the subject. They explained that the entrance was meant only for social work,” Khaty said.
The episode once again highlights the lack of coordination between different departments of the university.
Khaty said since the students wanted to appear in different subjects, VC’s permission has been taken to refund their application fee of around Rs500 or Rs300 each.
However, given the zero result in MET, the NU has ruled out review of the entrance’s difficulty level, which is same as PhD entrance test (PET) and the negative marking.
TOI had been reporting how NU has been unfair to MPhil aspirants in more than one way.
Regarding short notice, Pro-VC Pramod Yeole said the first notification was issued in December last year and students can’t blame the university. He couldn’t explain then why the special entrance was held for MPhil students on September 1. In fact, this MET was held only after TOI highlighted that there was no mention of MPhil aspirants in the PET schedule notification issued in December last year.
Generally, the NU has a policy to reviews the results in case the percentage is below 10%. In this case, it seems the top bras has decided to make no exemption.
