Jadavpur University (JU) on Wednesday scrapped the time-tested system of conducting admissions through entrance tests in six undergraduate humanities courses in the current academic session.

The decision taken in the executive council meeting came following the university’s decision to engage ‘external experts’ to set one of the two sets of question papers for entrance tests in English, comparative literature, history, political science, philosophy and Bengali. A section of the university professors felt that the decision to appoint ‘external experts’ was “humiliating” and “unwanted”.

The move once again led to a student agitation and gherao of vice-chancellor Suranjan Das demanding withdrawal of the decision to scrap entrance tests.

According to the college authorities, the initiative was taken to avoid inconvenience to admission aspirants.

Addressing the media, registrar Chiranjib Bhattacharjee said: “The decision has been taken in order to address the legal questions regarding the process and not to inconvenience the thousands of applicants. The decision has also been taken to address the sentiments of the teachers.”

The registrar announced in firm words that the current students of the university will have no role in the admission procedure.

The decision regarding cancellation of the entrance test had to be taken as the admission dates are round the corner. The authorities claimed that due to lack of time, they could not discuss the issue about the involvement of the Board of Studies in the admission procedure with the advocate general.

The executive council (EC) also informed that the date of application would be extended till 11 July for the sake of those students who are yet to apply for the courses. It would be decided after the next meeting of the admission committee as to which subject marks would be considered and the criteria for admission. Mr Bhattacharjee also confirmed that the dates of admission and beginning of classes will remain unchanged.

The announcement came after the meeting of the EC this afternoon. The declaration was met with strong protests from the students, who gheraoed the V-C, Mr Suranjan Das. The V-C faced resistance from the students twice and was barred from going out of the university premises.

Mr Partha Pratim Ray from Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA), rued the decision taken by the authorities, while condemning the gherao of the V-C by the students. “We protest the decision of cancellation of the admission test. But the treatment of the V-C by the students is condemnable. We do not support such violent behaviour under any circumstances,” said Mr Ray.

The students union had been protesting the involvement of outside faculty in checking the entrance test papers.

However, the situation turned worse after the announcement of cancellation of admission tests. Loud slogans by the students declaring “there is no requirement of such V-C and registrar” echoed in the campus.

Earlier, emeritus professor Sukanta Chaudhuri said: “If the state government wants to destroy a system that the state’s best university has been following and doing well… they have to explain the reasons… why they want to decimate it. Let them explain what good will come out of it.”

Another teacher said: “These days in the plus-II board exams, students end up notching up high scores even in the humanities stream. This is possible because more objective or short-answer questions are set at the school-leaving exams. But we need to test the writing skill of the prospective students to determine if a student is worthy of studying the humanities. We have been successfully doing this. Where is the need to engage the external experts in this exercise?”

Meanwhile, similar protests by students on the issue of irregularities in information provided to them by the college authorities were reported from Surendranath College this morning. The students demanded redressal of their inconveniences faced by them. Reacting to the demands of the students, the college authorities called a meeting after which the principal came forward to announce the resolution.

Dr Indranil Kar, principal of Surendranath Day College said that the admission would be done by the online method only on the basis of merit. He also said that the grievances of the students are being received and addressed by the concerned authorities.