Cuttack, June 7: Ravenshaw University has slashed more than a hundred seats across various postgraduate courses from the coming academic session.

Ravenshaw Bikash Abhijan (RBA), an organisation of the former student leaders of the institution, has strongly criticised the seat cut. They feel the decrease in seats will deprive many meritorious students from taking admission in the university.

University authorities, said the decision to slash seats was taken by the academic council after much thought and consultations with respective departments.

Seats in MSc physics has been brought down from 56 to 42, while the masters in journalism and mass communication course now stands at 40 instead of the previous 64. For MPhil courses in 15 subjects, 62 seats have been reduced.

"The decision to reduce seats for MSc in physics was taken on the basis of the department's view that inadequate laboratory facilities and infrastructure was resulting in overcrowding," vice-chancellor Prakash Chandra Sarangi told The Telegraph today.

"The decision to reduce seats in journalism and mass communication was taken in view of the number of admissions in the previous year. Last year, only 32 seats were filled against 64," Sarangi.

RBA president Chittaranjan Mohanty alleged that the university always chose to reduce seats instead of upgrading and expanding infrastructure to accommodate more students.

"In 2010, 40 seats were reduced from the postgraduate course in physics. However, the university was forced to add 20 more seats following widespread agitation. In the same year, 24 seats were reduced from the postgraduate course in English. This policy badly affects meritorious students," Mohanty said.

"Instead of reducing postgraduate seats, the varsity should concentrate on increasing the seats, which would indirectly help filling up the vacant posts of teachers," said Sibashis Praharaj, a former president of the university's students' union.

Following the recent slash, the university is now left with 1,294 postgraduate seats. "With two-thirds of faculty positions vacant, we are highly short-staffed. So, the departments have been making interim arrangements to appoint teachers on a contractual basis. However, we have not been able recruit such teachers this year because of a high court stay order," said the vice-chancellor.