98 PG seats lie vacant in Presi

KOLKATA: Ignoring the proposal of mentor committee members seems to have backfired on Presidency University. Despite the mentor committing suggesting vice-chancellor Amita Chatterjee not to start postgraduation courses in all 20 departments, the executive council members decided to go ahead with their plan and the varsity initiated PG courses from this academic session.
However, when the classes started on Wednesday, there were 98 vacant seats. "This only proves that students either did not have adequate confidence to apply for PG in Presidency University or there were no takers of certain subjects," said a senior academician of the institute.
But the university will not hold any more admission tests for PG courses to fill the vacancies.
Amitava Chatterjee, faculty member of Presidency University, however, had a reason to offer. "In Economics department, all 27 seats have been filled up. In previous years, we did not take admission tests. Neither did we follow such stringent measures as has been chalked out this year. Earlier, undergraduation marks were taken into consideration to get admissions. Even the minimum marks to apply were much lower in some courses. But this year, we had set a cut-off to ensure a minimum standard and to compete with the best international institutions. Many departments had increased the minimum cut-off to apply in the PG courses. Those who did not meet the eligibility criteria even after giving admission tests cannot reapply. This may have posed a problem as many failed to reach the minimum eligibility marks in admission tests," he said.
Another senior teacher added, "The university will have to set a standard for students. The EC had decided that a minimum cut-off will be prepared for students to be given admissions in PG courses. We cannot take those who fail to meet the minimum cut-off in admission tests. Let the seats remain vacant. As per the EC decision, 50% seats have been reserved for UG students of Presidency University who will get 505 in humanities or 55% in science in the UG courses while the rest seats will be for outsiders. To get admission in them, the students will have to get 50% in UG arts and 55% in UG science. They will then appear in the admission tests. Only if they meet the cut-off they will be given admissions."