Senate is mightier than the Council, says IIT-K

Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, which has decided to conduct its own entrance test from the next academic session in defiance of the union HRD minister Kapil Sibal’s ‘One Nation,One Test’ proposal, feels that its stand is in the interest of the students and made it clear that there was no going back on the decision now.

The decision of IIT-K is being dubbed as historic by many as it, according to the faculty members and students, seeks to maintain the high standard of education in the institute without bothering about the consequences.

“The idea of CET for all IITs, NITs and IIITs is flawed....it will dilute the quality besides increasing stress on the students”, say the faculty and the students of the prestigious institute.

Although representatives of IIT-K were part of the IIT faculty delegation that met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday to discuss the contentious issue, they made it clear that there will be no ‘re-think’ on the matter.

“We will go ahead with our plan to hold a separate entrance test...”, Prof Deepak Gupta, an IIT-K faculty, told Deccan Herald.

Prof Gupta strongly justified the decision to chart a separate path. “We cannot dilute the quality...the new format is full of flaws and unacceptable”, he said.

The IIT-K senate had recently met and adopted a resolution to this effect. The Senate had invoked ‘ordinance 3.2’, to claim that it was fully empowered to conduct the entrance examination for admissions to its undergraduate programmes in 2013 and was even prepared to fight the battle in the courts if the Council took recourse to legal action against the institute. “The power of the Academic Senate is far more than the Council”, the faculty members opined.

The resolution also authorised the Chairman of the Senate to form a committee for conducting JEE 2013 by IIT Kanpur and said that the undergraduate admissions committee would organise the entrance test and counselling.

United they stand

The Student Senate of the Institute has  voiced its strong opposition and warned the government against tampering with the autonomy of the institute.

“We will protest if the decision of the Academic Senate is overturned and the new format is thrust upon us...we will wear black badges while attending classes if that is done'', said Abhai Jain, Chairman of the Student Senate.

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