The Siliguri Institute of Technology

Siliguri, March 8: Fourth-year students of the Siliguri Institute of Technology have approached the West Bengal University of Technology to revoke an order cancelling the papers of six disciplines saying that the move would have a “negative impact” on their job prospects.

The university had cancelled the papers of electrical engineering, electronic communication, electrical instrumentation, computer science engineering, information technology and bio-medical engineering — examinations of which were held on December 21 — saying that the students had resorted to “unfair means” on that day.

The SIT students fear that the cancellation of the papers may have a negative impact on their job placements. They are currently attending the last (eighth) semester classes that started in the first week of February. The semester ends in May.

“We are likely to have some (job) interviews on the campus shortly. But our results have been withheld which is not good for us, as we will not be able to show the results to the companies wanting to recruit us. This is bound to have a negative impact on our placements,” said Prabhakar Kumar, a student representative of the final year.

The move has affected around 400 students in the fourth-year engineering departments. “The university has not fixed any date on which the exams will be held. It is not possible for us to wait for so long. We have sent a letter to the vice-chancellor, Sabyasachi Sengupta, on Saturday requesting him to revoke the notice, validate the cancelled papers and publish our results,” Prabhakar said.

The letter to the vice-chancellor was submitted to Gautam Das, the principal in-charge of the SIT, during a meeting between the students’ representatives and the teachers on Saturday.

On Friday, the WBUT published the results of all engineering colleges affiliated to it. The same day, the SIT authorities received a letter from the varsity that said the examinations of the fourth-year students of the institution held on December 21 had been cancelled. It said the students had resorted to “unfair means” during the exams that day. Their results have been withheld till further notice.

“The results of all the three years except the fourth-year students have been announced by the WBUT. The varsity said the students had resorted to unfair means during the exams compelling it to take this action,” said the principal in-charge of the SIT.

Last month, a section of final year students of the SIT had stalled office work demanding campus placements, hostel facilities for all and internships for second and third year students.

The principal in-charge said he was unaware of what had happened on December 21 because the university had deputed external examiners to supervise the tests. “The cancellation is based on what the invigilators may have reported to the authorities. The students have come out with an appeal to the vice-chancellor, which we have forwarded to him. The decision entirely depends on the WBUT and the college has little role,” Das said.

The vice-chancellor refused comment. “The controller of examinations is in a better position to comment on this,” Sengupta said when contacted over the phone. Asit Kumar Guha, the controller of examinations, could not be reached.