Kolkata: The adoption of 'domicile policy' for admission in undergraduate level at Jadavpur University (JU) has received major backing with a dozen out of 16 departments of engineering and technology wanting to bring back the system. The meeting of the faculty council for engineering and technology in this regard was held on Tuesday.
"Four of the departments have sought some more time to decide on their stand on bringing back the domicile policy. But the majority of the departments want the domicile policy. The next faculty council meeting has been scheduled on March 6, where the four departments are likely to come up with their stand," said Chiranjeeb Bhattacharya, the dean of faculty of Engineering & Technology of JU.
Computer engineering and chemical engineering are two of the departments that are yet to give their opinion in this regard. A senior member of the faculty council said that after a unanimous decision by the faculty council, the matter will be taken up at the meeting of the Executive Council (EC), which is the highest decision-making body of the varsity.
"We will also communicate the matter to the Directorate of Technical Education, state Higher Education department and West Bengal Joint Entrance Board, as this will be a major policy change," the member said.
It may be mentioned that if a domicile policy comes into effect, a certain percentage of the seats have to be set aside for "home students" - who have passed their Plus-II examinations from Bengal.
According to the member, the mechanical engineering department wanted all their seats to be reserved for home students while civil and construction engineering wanted 85 percent of their seats to be reserved. The Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST) Shibpur and the NIT, Durgapur, have reserved 50 percent of their seats for candidates from Bengal. A student from Bengal can be admitted as a home student or a non-home student in both the institutes.