Jadavpur University scraps entrance test for six arts subjects

Jadavpur University authorities on Wednesday decided to scrap the entrance test procedure to undergraduate courses in six humanities subjects.

“There will be no admission test to any of the six arts subjects. The entrance tests announced earlier have been cancelled,” Jadavpur University Registrar Chiranjib Bhattacharya said.

Bhattacharya said the decision was taken at the Executive Committee meeting in the wake of displeasure among a large section of Arts Faculty teachers over the previous decision to get the entrance test conducted by external experts.

Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said the admission procedure of all the faculties should be similar, adding the EC had decided that the admission will be solely based on marks obtained in the board examinations.

“In the present impasse there was little possibility of conducting entrance tests by addressing the concerns of our teachers. Keeping that in mind, and in view of the uncertainties faced by thousands of candidates, we decided to go by the marks criteria only for this year,” he said.

Both Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) and Arts Faculty Students’ Union (AFSU) slammed the university authority’s decision.  

A JUTA spokesman said, “Admitting students solely based on marks may lower the high academic standard of JU arts faculty, as we will have to admit candidates without proper evaluation of their writing abilities. This is a departure from the JU’s long-tested standards”.

The JUTA had said there was no legal provision for involvement of external experts, authorities or any other entity in JU admission tests.

An AFSU leader said, “We are not accepting this decision. We will continue our agitation”.

The JU authorities had also declared a new ‘50-50 formula’ recently, according to which the admission eligibility will be based on 50 per cent of the total marks obtained in admission tests, and 50 per cent of the total marks secured by a candidate in board examinations.

This displeased a large section of arts faculty teachers.

12 personalities from various walks of life, including poet Sankha Ghosh, litterateur Nabanita Dev Sen and academician Sukanto Chowdhury had on Tuesday wrote to Vice-Chancellor Suranjan Das against involving external experts in admission process.

The VC had been gheraoed for 44 hours since June 25 by the AFSU after the authorities decided to postpone the admission test for the six humanities subjects.

The JU chapter of the All Bengal University Teachers’ Association also criticised the decision of scrapping the admission test process for the six subjects - Bengali, English, Philosophy, Political Science, Comparative Literature and History.

(With inputs from agencies)