No penalty on affiliated colleges
Principals’ Association opposes BU’s ‘unscientific policies’
The Bangalore University has withdrawn a controversial penalty on affiliated colleges for delayed submission of student documents following opposition to the policy from the Bangalore University First Grade College Principals’ Association.
Vice-Chancellor Dr N Prabhu Dev also promised the principals that the decision to reduce the number of examination centres will be reviewed.
Earlier, principals from around 150 affiliated colleges gathered outside the VC’s office at the University’s Central College campus on Wednesday in protest against what they termed “unscientific policies”. The principals subsequently held a meeting with the vice-chancellor and submitted a memorandum.
Speaking to Deccan Herald before the meeting with the VC, General Secretary of the association Dr B S Srikanta said they would demand the withdrawal of several recent policies of the University during the meeting.
“A recent notice issued by the University has stated that colleges would have to pay fines between Rs one lakh and Rs five lakh if student documents like transfer certificates and marks cards are not submitted on time. Further, it says that criminal action will be taken against the principals. This has to be withdrawn,” he said.
He added that each year a small section of students always had problem in submitting their documents due to delays and other technical issues.
“This policy is completely unscientific and all the admissions have to be approved without the fine. Further, this year, the decision to introduce OMR sheets have resulted in students making more mistakes than usual,” Srikanta said.
Exam centres
Meanwhile, the college managements also opposed the recent decision to reduce the number of examination centres from 210 to 148. Several principals and management authorities at the meeting complained that the decision was unilateral and had also affected the repute of the institutions. Further, they said the decision to reduce the number of centres was an infrastructural nightmare as the colleges which were retained as centres were ill-equipped to handle the sudden upsurge.
Speaking to Deccan Herald, Registrar of Bangalore University, Dr T R Subramanya said that the University will review the decision after the principals’ association president presented his case in front of the Academic Council. “We have authorised the president of the association to appear before the Academic Council and a decision will be taken soon,” he said. In response, Dr B S Srikanta too expressed hope that the outcome will be favourable.
The association was also successful in convincing the University to retain the existing intake of students per section. The varsity had recently reduced the maximum intake per section from 100 to 60 students. A consensus was arrived at, during the meeting and the University will now approve the excess admissions in colleges as a one-time measure.
