Row over degree: FDDI students protest at India Gate, detained

The FDDI administration has been struggling to find a solution to the problem ever since, and students are worried this may affect their career prospects.

“We heard they are considering making the institute a deemed university, but this will not help the current batches because it won’t apply in retrospective — batches that enrolled between 2012 and 2015 will not be included in this move. So our problem is no closer to being solved,” said a second-year undergraduate student.

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Talks are on to make the institute a deemed university and a proposal for this has been formulated by the Ministry of Commerce and forwarded to the Human Resource Development Ministry.

Sandeep Bhatia, deputy general manager of training at the institute’s Noida branch, confirmed this even as he said students’ fears over deemed status not applying in retrospective were unfounded. “These are all rumours being circulated among students. If the deemed university plan wouldn’t include them, why would we work on it at all? This is being done majorly for them. There is a clause that allows us to include them in the plan,” he said.

Students at the protest said they were aware of this position of the institute. “We are not going to keep quiet until our concerns have been addressed. We have boycotted our classes. Students from across the country have assembled here to draw attention to our cause. We will not leave until the UGC or someone from the ministry addresses our grievances,” said a student.

The agitation ended sooner than planned. Police whisked away students in three buses and a couple of vans about half-an-hour after the protest started. No charges were pressed against the students and they were released after being detained for a few hours, said sources.

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