Outdated syllabus, lack of regular teachers, inordinate delay in conducting of exams, no placement assistance, very few computers in computer labs, rickety furniture in classrooms and creaky buildings. These are just some of the issues being faced by students of Master of Computer Applications (MCA) in a dozen Centres for Computer Science and Information Technology affiliated to the University of Calicut.
These centres, set up in 1996 in five districts under the university’s jurisdiction, offer three-year postgraduate programme in MCA and MSc Computer Science and graduate programme in B.Sc Information Technology. Since 2019, they started a two-year lateral entry course too in MCA. There are at least 30 students in each MCA batch.
According to K. Abin, functionary of a collective of MCA students, those belonging to the 2018 regular and 2019 lateral entry batches have not completed their tenure even now. “For the 2018 batch, exams have been completed only for four semesters. Notification for the fifth semester is yet to be out. For the 2019 batch, exams have been held only for two semesters. Both these groups are yet to get any idea about completion of their academic projects,” he said. The condition of the 2020 batch is not different as they have not had any exams till date.
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Mr. Abin said that though each student paid ₹22,500 in each semester as fee, they were not given proper facilities. None of these centres had permanent teachers. Most of the buildings were not in proper shape. Differently-abled students often found it difficult to cope with this. These students of computer applications had no well-equipped computer labs. They were still being taught outdated syllabus, which did not prepare them with fast-changing technological advancements.
“Because of the delay in conducting exams, courses do not complete on time. This affects our prospects for higher studies and jobs. We find it difficult to compete with students with similar qualifications who complete courses in APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University,” Mr. Abin said.
These students took out a protest march to the university campus recently to highlight their concerns. Though university authorities have promised to look into their demands, the students say that they may not be addressed soon because of issues such as budgetary constraints.
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