Jadavpur University arts panel opts for old admission process

KOLKATA: Jadavpur University’s arts admissions committee on Thursday junked a two-member panel report and framed a new set of suggestions for admitting students to the undergraduate courses for 2019-2020 academic session. At a meeting of all the department heads and dean Subhashis Biswas, it was decided that barring minor changes, the admission process will stick to the procedure the university had been following till 2017.

As per the committee’s recommendations, which will now be forwarded to the executive council for its final seal, both English and comparative literature departments will admit students solely on the basis of their admission test marks. Economics, sociology and Sanskrit departments will admit students based just on their HS marks. The other four key UG streams — history, political science, Bengali and philosophy — will admit students based on a 50:50 weightage to admission test and HS scores.

After a controversy over the withdrawal of admission tests in 2018, JU had admitted students based on a 50:50 weightage to admission test and HS scores in six subjects – English, comparative literature, history, political science, Bengali and philosophy. The remaining three — economics, sociology and Sanskrit — admitted on the basis of HS marks.

“The English department did not want to deviate from their traditional method of selecting candidates. They had been conducting admission based on entrance tests for several decades. Last year was an exception. They now wanted to return to their original format,” said Biswas. He added, “Comparative literature is a subject that is not taught in Plus Two. So they wanted to return to the same method — of holding admission test — for selecting students that was followed till 2017.”

The executive council and vice-chancellor Suranjan Das had formed a two-member panel — comprising a former high court judge and former Calcutta University VC Ashutosh Ghosh — to look into the 2018 admission controversy and suggest possible remedies. It recommended entrance tests to eight UG departments, just like it was done last year. However, they left the final decision-making to the arts admission committee. The report was first placed before the EC and then forwarded to the admissions committee.

“Four departments — philosophy, history, political science and Bengali — did not want to make any changes to the two-member panel’s suggestion since they were impressed with the report. Thus, they will follow the 50:50 pattern, giving equal weightage to admission test and HS marks,” explained a source.

Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association general secretary Partha Pratim Ray said: “We believe in complete autonomy of departments and their decisions should be final. We are happy with the admission committee’s decision.”