SGU students face a bleak future

SURAT, Dec 9: As many as seven students, who cleared the higher secondary board examinations conducted early this year, face an uncertain...

SURAT, Dec 9: As many as seven students, who cleared the higher secondary board examinations conducted early this year, face an uncertain future as doors of admission have been locked on them.

Since the first term got over on November 30, there is simply no other way they can be admitted to any of the colleges affiliated to the South Gujarat University without making changes in the relevant ordinance.

The affected students, who observed a dharna to highlight their plight are holding authorities at the P T Science College and the pro-vice-chancellor professor R N Shelat who is acting as vice-chancellor, since the exit of Ashwin Kapadia for having pushed them into such a situation.

They allege that they were made to shuttle between the college premises in Athwalines and the university administrative building on the Udhna-Magdalla Road. Their problem stems from the fact that they applied for admission at only one college, hoping that once the engineering and medical students secure admission elsewhere, their name will go up in the merit list.

The delay over finalising engineering and medical admissions ensured that very little time was left before the first semester ended. Their names apparently did not move up, leaving them high and dry as they had applied in only one college.

The affected students allege that many candidates who had secured less marks were admitted, while their claim was rejected. Authorities, however, deny that.

There were many students who had failed to secure admission anywhere, before the acting vice-chancellor asked some colleges to accommodate them by increasing their capacity. 8220;Nobody is at fault,8221; says Shelat.

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But the seven found themselves in no man8217;s land, lost as they were in a slew of assurances by authorities, before syndicate member K B Patel offered to help them out.

The first term being officially over on November 30, there is little the acting vice-chancellor could do. The college washed its hand of in a similar fashion. Or so the students allege while spurning a suggestion to drag the college to the court of law.

SGU Syndicate being a divided house, its members are not expected to see eye to eye on even such a genuine problem. Patel, who belongs to the group led by Hoshang Mirza, maintains that it is possible to change the ordinance to solve the problem by calling a special meeting of the Syndicate.

Professor Girish Rana of the opposite group is against doing so. 8220;Changing ordinance once will set a bad precedent giving rise to similar demands in future,8221; he says. He says his group will walk out when the item comes for discussion helping its passage.