JU fails to resolve admission debacle, English, Comparative Lit depts adamant on stand

Kolkata: The Executive Council (EC) at Jadavpur University (JU) on Monday failed to resolve the long-standing admission debacle, with the English and Comparative Literature departments still sticking to their stand of admitting students in undergraduate level only on the basis of marks scored in entrance test.

The EC, which is the highest decision-making body of the varsity, reverted the

matter back to the admission committee, asking for reconsideration.

The other Humanities departments, namely Bengali, International Relations, Philosophy and History, are in favour of the equal weightage system of admission, where 50 percent weightage will be given to marks obtained in the admission test, with the other 50 percent to marks scored in higher secondary or equivalent examination.

The two-member admission committee formed by the varsity had recommended admission following the equal weightage system.

It may be mentioned that in 2018, there were allegations of improper evaluation of answer scripts of History and the varsity had to conduct re-evaluation with external academicians.

It was found that there was a significant variation of marks secured by the candidates in the first and second evaluation. The first evaluation was conducted by professors of the varsity's History department while the second one was done by external experts.

As a result, there were multiple changes in the revised selection list for History. A total number of 15 candidates, who were on the waiting list after the earlier evaluation, made it to the selection list after re-evaluation.

A total of 344 scripts were re-evaluated. The merit list for admission was prepared on the basis of 50 percent of marks in the board examination and 50 percent of the marks scored in the admission test.