NIT Srinagar: Board may approve demand for external evaluation

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The Senate is the highest decision-making body of the institute for all academic purposes. However, sources said the BoG is also empowered to look into the demand for external evaluation.

Non-local students agitating at NIT, Srinagar, had asked for the government to arrange for external examiners to evaluate their papers as they feared discrimination by the resident faculty members. They had also sought a transfer to other NITs outside the state on similar grounds.

While the Centre rejected the second demand, it has been open to the request for external evaluation. The ministry is exploring the option of sending some of its best teachers from the IIT-NIT system to the NIT for this purpose. “We are also looking at introducing evaluation of final exam answer scripts from external examiners across all 31 NITs. The details are being worked out,” a senior official said.

Final examinations at NIT, Srinagar, are set to start Monday, but over 200 students have opted to go home and sit for it later. HRD officials said close to 60 non-local students left Sunday and another 170 wanted to return home. “The government is arranging for them to leave as well,” the official added. The ministry expects this number to go up to 300.

Tempers have been rising on the NIT campus ever since some students from the Valley and some from outside the state clashed following India’s semifinal loss to West Indies in the T-20 World Cup.