 |
| BJB College in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture |
Bhubaneswar, Nov. 8: The fate of more than 350 students of self-financing courses continue to hang in balance as the degree granting authority — Utkal University — is allegedly running out of coloured papers on which their registration numbers are supposed to be printed.
“The university authorities said they did not have coloured papers on which our registration numbers were supposed to be printed. The career of five batches of students is at stake for this reason, while the university continues to give us silly explanations for the delay in giving registration numbers,” said a final-year student of business administration.
Students alleged that they could not seek transfer to other universities or pursue further studies as they were yet to receive registration numbers for the self-financing courses from Utkal University.
“Without the registration number, our courses have no value. We stand no chance to be benefited by what we have studied for so long spending our hard-earned money,” said a student pursuing a self-financing course at the BJB Autonomous College.
They alleged that a third-year student of integrated MBA programme, who wanted to quit the course after first three years and pursue his studies at Berhampur University, was denied admission there, as he could not show a registration number of Utkal University. The five-year integrated courses have an “exit clause” after completion of three years.
Final-year students of self-financing courses at BJB (Autonomous) College have threatened to skip the form fill-up process for their examination if they do not get their registration numbers from Utkal University by next week.
“None of the students enrolled in the self-financing courses have got their registration numbers yet. Many of us, who were planning to opt out after three years of the course, were unable to do so since we did not have the requisite registration numbers to seek a transfer to other colleges. We were thus forced to continue here. Now, our juniors are facing the same problem,” said a final-year student of electronics and telecommunication.
The students had staged several protests in the past demanding recognition of the self-financing courses from the university. They alleged that they took admission when the courses began in 2007 thinking that those were being offered by the BJB College. However, they later realised that the courses, which were only a collaborative venture between the college and two private trusts, were yet to receive university affiliation.
The affiliation row was resolved in May when Utkal University’s vice-chancellor P.K. Sahu had declared that registration numbers would “soon” be provided to the students of self-financing courses. But, the students allege that they are yet to receive the registration numbers as the varsity is running out of coloured papers on which these are supposed to be printed.
Susama Tripathy, who took over as the principal of the BJB Autonomous College in October, said they had already started the process of sending the names of all students to the university for allotment of registration numbers.
“We have sent the names of all the final-year students and a few others from the third-year batch to the university. The details of the other students will also be sent at the earliest. We can only hope that the university will send the registration numbers in time,” she said, adding that students had been requested to fill-up their forms on November 18, failing which they would not be allowed to sit for examinations this year.
But, the students did not seem convinced. “We demand that the registration numbers are given to us before the commencement of the form fill-up process,” said another MBA student.
Despite several attempts, Utkal University’s vice-chancellor P.K. Sahu could not be contacted for his comments on this.