Lady Brabourne College has informed Calcutta University that it wishes to admit students to its master’s programmes either through admission tests or interviews this year.
The government college offers postgraduate programmes in 10 subjects: physics, chemistry, mathematics, botany, zoology, microbiology, geography, English, Bengali, and political science.
Principal Siuli Sarkar, who met CU vice-chancellor Ashutosh Ghosh on Tuesday to press for the restoration of autonomy, said the college wanted to admit students graduating with honours this year (following the completion of a three-year undergraduate programme) through admission tests or interviews.
“A college offering a postgraduate programme should have the autonomy to screen its own students. The college should assess who has the proficiency and potential to pursue the postgraduate programme,” Sarkar said.
Students completing the four-year undergraduate course under the National Education Policy (NEP) next year may, however, be exempted from admission tests, as they will have already demonstrated proficiency for the postgraduate level, she added.
Under the new policy, students pursuing the fourth year of the UG programme and maintaining a certain cut-off in the CGPA until the sixth semester will graduate with a research component after completing the eighth semester in 2027.
Sarkar said: “While admitting students to the one-year postgraduate programme, they want to screen students based on marks. Since these students will be graduating with research, we do not want to hold any admission tests to screen them for master’s programmes.”
Currently, 80% of postgraduate seats at Calcutta University, including those at affiliated colleges, are reserved for students from its undergraduate programmes. Students in these reserved seats are admitted based on marks, while graduate students from other universities must take admission tests to compete for the remaining 20% of seats.
The demand to conduct admission tests or interviews at the postgraduate level comes months after colleges such as Lady Brabourne, Ashutosh, and Scottish Church urged the CU vice-chancellor to restore autonomy in running their postgraduate programmes.
Several Calcutta colleges of repute said Calcutta University’s 2018 decision to take complete control of postgraduate exams and syllabi had weakened academic standards. Before that year, colleges had full authority over their PG programmes.
The principal of Ashutosh College, who met with the CU VC on Saturday to discuss the demand for the restoration of autonomy at the postgraduate level, informed VC Ghosh that they wished to hold the postgraduate admissions independently.
“Since Calcutta University’s postgraduate admissions are held centrally, both for the university’s own departments and for colleges offering postgraduate programmes, the postgraduate admissions in colleges get delayed. Many students do not take admission because of this delay, and our postgraduate seats remain vacant,” said Manas Kabi, the principal of Ashutosh College.
The principal said that if autonomy was restored, Ashutosh could also consider picking students through admission tests.
Saturday’s meeting with the vice-chancellor was also attended by the principal of Scottish Church College, who had written to the VC on December 4 seeking the “reinstatement of autonomy”.
Principal Madhumanjari Mandal wrote that independence would strengthen the college’s commitment to “academic innovation”.
On Wednesday, VC Ghosh said: “We have heard what the college principals had to say. Any decision on their demands can be finalised following a discussion at the university’s syndicate.”