“We have seen growing corruption (in college admission) around us in the past five years. Who can say what the change in admission process in JU can lead to?” Professor Emeritus Sukanta Chaudhuri

The impasse over admission tests in Jadavpur University Arts faculty continued on Tuesday as no consensus could be reached after a meeting between the Admissions Committee, Vice Chancellor Suranjan Das and Registrar Chiranjib Bhattacharya.

Das had earlier said that the state advocate-general was of the opinion that the board of studies and teachers should be dissociated from the process of conducting admission tests. But the teachers demanded that the admission test question pattern be kept unchanged. There are fears among teachers that multiple-choice-questions may be introduced in the admission tests.

This is what Professor Emeritus Sukanta Chaudhuri said on the attempt to change the existing system of admission tests:

“Jadavpur University is certainly one of the best universities in India. There is no way one can deny this. Any sensible person would say let us help them in the work they are doing. At least let’s not upset the work they are doing.

There hasn’t been any allegation of corruption. This has been a tried and tested method (of conducting admission test). So why did it need to be changed? The simplest thing to do would be to allow the system to carry on. A few thousands of students want to sit for admission tests. Why put this whole system into uncertainty? Who benefits from this?

The excellence of Jadavpur University has been proven for the past few decades. Jadavpur University has a number of UGC Special Assistance Departments, there is the Centre for Advance Studies, there is the Jadavpur University press… Scholars used to come and continue to come to Jadavpur University from all over the world. This includes Harvard University.

I don’t know whether the higher education department even knows about all this, or whether they are even interested in finding out about these achievements of JU. Do they even open the annual report – at Bikash Bhawan – that is sent from here? If they know it, can they assure the students what alternative they are offering? Why are they doing it? They need to offer an explanation to the people of this state.

Teachers know best how to conduct tests. They will teach students, they will conduct classes. If they can’t be trusted to conduct tests for students’ admissions, then how can you assign them the responsibility of teaching?

What is the academic reason behind this? This is a place for studying. Why don’t they show the other places (in Bengal) where students are studying. We demand to know what the alternative is. If they want to destroy something good, what will they set up in its place?

The retired teachers of Jadavpur University have made a statement. I am not saying that there is some immediate dishonest motive behind trying to do away with the present system (of conducting admission test). I am not saying it – there may be others who are alleging that, I don’t know. I am just saying is that this will open a gate, a possibility – and who can say what will happen in future? There are hundreds of students, some are openly making some allegations (about corruption in the admission system). We are also hearing it. We are not living outside. We can’t say this won’t happen (here) the next year or in future.

The corruption that we are seeing around us (in college admissions) – did we imagine, five years ago, that such a thing would happen (here)? All this has emerged in the past five years. Therefore, we can’t rest assure about Jadavpur University if teachers are removed from the responsibility of conducting admission tests.”