PU Senate to act tough on students concealing info

* Admissions to go online for almost all courses from the next academic session

In a strong move,the Panjab University Senate,in a meeting held on Sunday,passed a resolution to impose a fine of Rs 5,000 on all candidates “deliberately concealing” information at the time of admission. The decision was taken in view of the lapses on the part of candidates part or to curtail the practice of concealing information in the admission forms. The decision is expected to be implemented from the coming academic session.

Notwithstanding strong opposition from the Senate members who called it an attempt to “balance the budget”,Vice-Chancellor Professor R C Sobti went ahead with the decision to increase the fine amount of Rs 500 — already passed in the Syndicate meeting held on June 29 this year— to Rs 5,000. The Senate members opposed both the amount and the idea of imposing fine for anomalies in the admission forms,saying that it will not help much to solve the issue. The members demanded an equal penalty on the staff of the examination branch on the errors made by them.

Making another important announcement,Prof Sobti said most admissions would be conducted online from the coming academic session. The university had,for the first time,conducted admissions online for B Com in all affiliated colleges this year; the university aims to introduce this facility in other courses,too.

Prof Sobti also denied any possibility of conducting online entrance examinations. “In the wake of recent incidents (at PEC University of Technology and PGIMER) where the candidates managed to get admissions in the institutes on the basis of forged documents,the university has decided not to conduct any online entrance examination. This proposal was contemplated till recently,” he said.

Another decision,favouring the interests of students came with the announcement of increase in the value of A C Bali and K K Grover declamation awards from Rs 150 to Rs 5,000. As per the revised structure,the first runner-up would receive a cash prize of Rs 3,000 and second runner-up Rs 2,000. Also,the existing amount of donations for instituting endowments and scholarships has been revised. Now,the medal amount has been increased from Rs 25,000 to Rs 1 lakh; scholarships from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 4 lakh; and lectures from Rs 80,000 to Rs 4 lakh.

The resolution proposed by Dr Dharinder Tayal— a fellow— to consider change in attire for the convocation of the university and the same to be in consonance with the culture and weather was referred to a committee formed by the V-C. The issue needed to be considered in totality,said the V-C. Earlier,the Syndicate meeting held on June 29 had resolved to keep the resolution proposed by Dr Tayal pending. There were debates and discussions on the resolution by the members.

The Senate passed a resolution,making it mandatory for all the teaching faculty at the PU regional centres to clear Class X Punjabi examination within two years. The justification given for this decision was in order to bridge the communication gap between the faculty and the students in the regional centres.

The proposal of exemption of mathematics as one of the subjects in Class XII for the students seeking admissions in BCA has been sent back to the Academic Council for further consideration. Also,a committee was formed under the chairmanship of Professor A K Bhandari to look into the matter.

Meeting Sidelights
* Although there was anticipation among several quarters of much debate on the inquiry reports presented with regard to charges of fudging data to obtain higher rating among the business schools in India against Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma and Prof Satish Kapoor of UBS and another report with regard to MBA question paper setting against Dr Sharma,the Senate passed the reports,exonerating both the employees.

* In a heated discussion between the V-C and one of the Senate members (from the teaching faculty of an affiliated college) over the notice served to the college,the V-C asked him to correct his habits first and then question the authority. Hitting him directly,the V-C said he had been involved in consuming liquor in the University Guest House against the university guidelines. The member,in retaliation,accused the V-C of not doing anything when the same was done in the guest house by other faculty members in his presence.

* On the demand of filling the vacant teaching posts,the V-C revealed that the process is on and expressed helplessness about the quality of candidates applying for the posts. He justified that he is shocked to interview the candidates who are not even aware about the basics of their subject,leave apart their knowledge of current affairs.

* The V-C declared that as per the website highimpactuniverstities.com rankings,the Panjab University is the only Indian University to be ranked among the top 500 universities by the website. It is ranked at 380 among the world universities. The status of other Indian Institutions quoted included IIT Kanpur at 222,Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore at 273,IIT Madras at 413,IIT Roorkee at 497,IIT Kharagpur at 507 and IIT Bombay at 507.