University dumps 200 foreigners

Md Tariqul Haque, President of the Symbiosis International Students’ Council told `The Indian Express’ that there were at least 80 such affected students from Symbiosis itself who were studying for degrees in Arts and Commerce. According to Tariq, students who were studying various courses since 1994-95 were also refused admission as they failed the English proficiency test.

"It is extraordinary that we clear the college examination, but not the test," rues Tariq, while Aness A Elmadani, cultural coordinator at the Symbiosis foreign students’ cell also pointed out that the English proficiency test was conducted a year after they cleared the college examination. While Tariq claimed that an Ethiopian student tried to commit suicide, several admissions have also been cancelled owing to visa problems.

For Suma Gautam and Regina Shrestha whose results of the first year B Com were not declared this year, cut short their vacation and rushed back from Nepal only to make several rounds at the Centre to finally procure their marksheet but no admission to the second year at Ness Wadia College.

"Our parents thought we had failed as we had not got our results," cries Suma who passed with a first class, but admission has yet to be granted due to eligibility reasons. Although Suma and Regina protest that they had submitted all their certificates including migration and medical fitness certificates.

Jyoti Dandekar, Assistant Director of the Centre however vehemently denies the charges made by the students and admits that admissions have been cancelled on grounds of students not fulfiling eligibility norms, delay in submission of medical fitness certificates despite announcing several last dates and such students whose visas were not endorsed with the name of the University of Pune where they sought admission. These students have visas endorsed in the name of Symbiosis, Aptech, NIIT and other autonomous courses. We cannot take such students, she said. "We have been extremely lenient," asserts Dandekar who lamented that for years the students had not cleared their medical fitness test. Dandekar, who is also the coordinator for the English language intensive course for international students (ELICIS) said that several chances were given to students to clear the test, but they failed to turn up.