Jadavpur University Echoes Bengal Government, Scraps Entrance Test for Six Arts Courses

On Wednesday, the Executive Council (EC) of Jadavpur University decided to scrap the Entrance tests for Six Undergraduate Arts Courses. This has prompted widespread protests from members of Arts Faculty Students’ Union (AFSU) and Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA). Prominent luminaries, alumni, and professors, like Emeritus Professor Sukanta Chaudhuri, have condemned this move. They have raised questions over why this decision was made, and who would really benefit from this.

The University’s Vice-Chancellor, Suranjan Das hailed the move, while stating that the highest decision-making body of the University (the Executive council) had taken the decision and not him alone. Further, he alleged that he was confined to a room by a section of students, after the meeting.

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An AFSU leader said, "We are not accepting this decision. We will continue our agitation." Students say that this move has put in jeopardy, the future of thousands of students who have applied to JU, and allow the state government to push the Trinamool Congress youth cadres into the Leftist bastion university.

The admissions to the Arts Courses— English, Bangla, Comparative Literature, History, Political Science, and Philosophy will be based solely on the marks obtained in the class XII Board Examinations for “only this year”. Teachers are saying that this will adversely affect the quality of students admitted to the Arts courses. The heads of all the six Arts departments that were supposed to hold their own admission tests beginning July 11 are still in favour of an admission test, The Telegraph reported.

President of Jadavpur University Teachers Association (JUTA), Keshav Bhattacharya said, “Scrapping the entrance tests will lead to discontent among professors, students, scholars, guardians, and applicants.”

He also said, “We are not aware of the admission process for next year. We believe that the admission process cannot and should not be continued without the involvement of teachers of the departments and schools. Hiring external experts is not acceptable to us. We request the council to resolve the issue and decide an academically desirable mode of admission that includes teachers who have, year after year, proved the success of the system.”

Wednesday’s EC meeting took place to address the controversial move of the University to allow “external experts” to set one of the two sets of question papers for the entrance tests to the aforementioned Arts Courses, thereby taking it out of the hands of the department teachers. This was opposed by a section of teachers and students, excluding the pro-government deans and professors, as well as students’ affiliated to the ruling government. The West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Act, 2012, passed by Mamata Banerjee’s government, lets the VC appoint deans based on the recommendations of the Selection Committee formed by the state government. This essentially means that the final say in appointing deans in Universities lies with the state government. This has paid its dividends, as shown by the composition of the EC and the members who supported the government’s view in the meeting.

According to a report by The Telegraph, the University had introduced a 50:50 formula for admission to Arts courses, giving 50% weightage to class XII Board exams and 50% to entrance exams, on June 27 this year. The decision had come after students had gheraoed the VC and officials of the EC for 44 hours, against the move to scrap the entrance tests. The EC has been acting at the behest of West Bengal Education Minister, Partha Chatterjee, who had said in November last year that JU should scrap the entrance tests to the Arts Courses and admit students entirely on the basis of the school-leaving examinations.

The Executive Council had postponed the deadline for submitting applications twice, changed the entrance test dates, weightage and procedure, amidst continuous resistance and protests, before finally scrapping the entrance test altogether.

Admissions to Science courses have been taking place on the basis of class XII marks for some time now.

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