At least 25 Indian students, studying in their first semester, enrolled in a computer sciences programme at Western Kentucky University have been asked to return to India or find placement in other schools after they were found not meeting the admission standards of the varsity, The New York Times said on Tuesday.
Some 60 Indian students enrolled themselves for the programme in January this year using international recruiters.
James Gary, chairman of Western Kentucky’s computer science programme, told the Times that “almost 40” of the students did not meet the requirements of their admissions, even though they were offered remedial help by the university.
Mr. Gary said the students were unable to write computer programmes, a necessary part of the curriculum and a skill that U.S. schools teach to undergraduates.
“If they come out of here without the ability to write programmes, that’s embarrassing to my department,” he said, explaining why the university could not permit them to continue.
The students had been admitted after a recruitment campaign in India where the recruiters had run advertisements offering “spot admission” to the university, as well as tuition discounts.
The university senate has now endorsed a resolution, expressing concern about the recruitment campaign which was part of the university’s efforts to lift enrolment and revenue in the face of deep State budget cuts, the newspaper said.
The university, in a statement, said it had altered its international recruitment efforts in India. The school will also send members of the computer science faculty to India to meet with students before offers of admission are made in the future.
The chairman of the Indian Student Association at Western Kentucky University, Aditya Sharma, has expressed concern for the students who have been asked to leave. “I definitely feel badly for these students,” he said. “They’ve come so far. They’ve invested money into it.”
But he admitted that some of the students had adopted what he called a “casual” approach to their studies. “They could not meet their G.P.A. (grade point average), so the university had to take this decision.”
