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EDUCATION |
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Should admissions to BBA, BCA, B.Com
be centralised?
By Chitleen K Sethi
Tribune News Service
CHANDIGARH,
Aug 18 — With the admission process on its last legs in various colleges of Chandigarh, the question of whether there should be centralised admissions to courses like BBA, BCA and B.Com, has again come to the fore. There seem to be differences among college heads regarding this issue. The admissions to B.Com were done at the college level earlier. The colleges sold their prospectuses, invited applications, prepared a merit list and admitted students. But complaints were received about some colleges charging large amounts of money from the students for admission. The whole process was then centralised and when BBA and BCA courses were introduced, admissions to these were also centralised. But it was felt by some colleges that the centralised mode of admissions was not good enough and following a decision of the committee set up to look into this matter, it was decided to decentralise the admissions to these courses again. This year, as a result, admissions to these courses were done at the level of the colleges. But many principals say that it has been a headache to admit students this year as there has been a hoard of phone calls and visits from people trying to put pressure to get their wards admitted. “Phone calls start coming from the morning and continue till midnight. There is no end to the ways in which we are pressurised to admit students not worthy of the seat. Moreover, the process of admissions is still continuing even two weeks after classes have begun. There is no uniform system of admissions. We are as much harassed as the students seeking admissions.” says Mr P.S. Sangha, Principal, SGGS College, Sector 26. But this is not the only problem. With admissions being done at the college level, the students buy prospectuses of all colleges offering these courses, trying their luck everywhere. Some students end up buying prospectuses of the seven colleges at the same time. “On the day of admissions, the students are seen rushing from one college to another. I have written to the VC, Panjab University, to centralise the admission process,” says Mr
A.C. Vaid, Principal, GGDSD College, Sector 32. Some students even pay the fee at more than one college and weigh their options. For colleges, this causes a problem of vacant seats. On the other side, there are those who reject the idea of a centralised system of admission completely. They are of the opinion that a centralised system is not student friendly. Students seeking admission to BBA, BCA and B.Com, who have to come from far-off towns to the city, can hope to get admission to a college nearby. Moreover, the allotment of seats in various colleges is according to the merit lists. A student residing in Ferozepore ends up getting admission to a college at Hoshiarpur. Only students at the top of the merit list can choose the college they want to go to. “Many of the rural and small town colleges do not have the necessary infrastructure or even the staff to conduct these courses, especially BCA. In fact last year, during centralised admissions, there were not more than six to seven takers for many of the rural colleges offering these courses. In such a situation, it is not advisable to centralise of admissions.” says, Mr D.P. Singh, Principal, Government College, Sector 46, who was also the coordinator for the centralised admission exams last year. Incidentally, colleges follow the process of admissions followed by the university departments, but there too the centralised system of admissions had failed after being introduced three years back. “The faculty found it tedious to adjust to a computerised system of admissions and by the time they were able to come to terms with this process, which is otherwise foolproof, some amount of resistance against the centralised admissions had already taken roots and the system was promptly shifted to the old one,” says Dr M. Rajiv Lochan, Reader, Department of History, Panjab University, who had been involved with the process of centralised admissions. “As far as the college administration is concerned, we have no problem in any system of admission, but there is no doubt that the centralised system is more student friendly. If one is to take into consideration the convenience to the students, we should have a centralised admission process,” says Mrs Vijaylakshmi, Principal, Government College for Girls, Sector 11.
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