Students of St. Aloysius College, an autonomous degree college under Mangalore University, staged a protest in front of the administrative building of the university on Wednesday.
They urged the university to withdraw the recent circular issued by it to its postgraduate departments and other affiliated colleges asking the managements to deny admission to those students whose examination schemes were not on a par with that of the university, for the academic year 2010-11.
The students said that in the light of the circular they and students of St. Agnes College, another autonomous college, who passed out in 2009-10 had become ineligible to join postgraduate courses of the university in the current academic year.
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The university has fixed the internal assessment marks at 20 (out of 100) while the two colleges have fixed it at 30.
The students submitted a memorandum to Vice-Chancellor T.C. Shivashankara Murthy, requesting him to settle the issue at the earliest.
Teachers and students of the two degree colleges had taken out a silent procession here on Tuesday, protesting against the circular.
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The procession was taken out from St. Aloysius College to the office of the Deputy Commissioner under the banner of the Joint Forum of Teachers of St. Aloysius and St. Agnes Colleges.
In a memorandum submitted at the Deputy Commissioner's office, they sought the Governor's intervention in “providing justice to students by issuing necessary directions to Mangalore University”.
The memorandum claimed that “the scheme of examination with an internal assessment component of 30 per cent marks had been approved by the Government of Karnataka, in the presence of the Vice-Chancellor and other officials”. It alleged that the university was admitting students of other universities with different examination schemes to its postgraduate courses. The forum said the two degree colleges had paid the registration fee of students to the university and the latter had approved the admissions of these students.
AMUCT supports
The Association of Mangalore University College Teachers (AMUCT) has extended support to the students. In a press release, its president Ummappa Poojary and general secretary Denis Fernandes urged the Vice-Chancellor to “resolve the issue immediately.''
VC clarifies
Mr. Murthy told The Hindu on Wednesday that the examination scheme followed by the two colleges was “inconsistent with the basic policy of the university”. Let the colleges correct their examination pattern by fixing the internal marks at 20, he said. He said that the university had extended the deadline for receiving applications for post-graduation courses from August 7 to 16. Hence the colleges had time to correct the examination pattern, he said.
Mr. Murthy said that the colleges had been given autonomy in designing courses, setting up question papers, evaluating answer scripts and announcing results, to have their own calendar of events and allotment of workload to teachers.