No entrance exam in IUST very unfair, students complain

PULWAMA — The students aspiring to get admission in Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST) Awantipora have complained of unfairness as the varsity is going to skip the annual entrance exam, at least according to the official Admission Notification No. 1 of 2020.

According to the official notification, B.Tech Engineering, MBA/MBA-IB, M.Tech Food Technology and MBA (5-Year Integrated) admissions will be done as per performance in JEE Main, CMAT, GATE and test conducted by a National Level Testing Agency, respectively. However, for all other programmes including M.A and M.Sc, the admissions will be “based on the percentage of marks in aggregate obtained by a candidate in the qualifying examination.”

Some agitated aspirants, while expressing their fears over phone, said that various Universities across the State have invited fresh admissions for current academic session 2020-21 and are selecting the candidates by conducting Entrance Examination but the IUST Awantipora seems to do otherwise.

“Recently, Kashmir University successfully conducted its entrance examination for various Post Graduate and Undergraduate programmes and is going to conduct other tests for Admissions, under proper SOPs in place. Even, the national level examinations for Medical and Engineering studies like NEET & JEE Mains were conducted across the country in which lakhs of students appeared. But I fail to understand the helplessness of IUST authorities,” Adnan Mushtaq, a student said.

Saima Gulzar, another student, said, “IUST Awantipora has decided to select candidates for admission to various PG & UG programmes as per the percentage in their qualifying exam, which is Graduation for PG Programmes, and Diploma for B-Tech Lateral Entry. This is very brazen.”

The candidates are aghast against the University authorities for not conducting the usual entrance examination for new admissions for current academic session.

“When KU conducted the entrance exam without any issues for large number of seats, why can’t IUST do so for comparatively fewer seats? When JEE Mains & NEET exams were held across the country, what’s holding IUST back?” Shabir Ahmad, an aspirant said.

He added, “Selecting candidates merely on qualifying exam merit is sheer injustice as anyone can get good grades in his course by unfair means, which is not uncommon. That’s why entrance examination is conducted, to make sure deserving candidates get entry.”

When contacted, Professor A. M. Shah, IUST’s Dean Academic Affairs, said, “This decision was taken long back in a meeting of Dean’s / HODs under the chairmanship of the Vice Chancellor, keeping in view a number of factors and COVID-19 situation at that time. For any other information regarding the matter, you can call VC of the University.”

“The Entrance Exam issue impacts fever programmes offered by the University, which are mainly M.A and M.Sc. Also, the decision to do away with the Entrance Exam is not final, given that the application process ends on October 03 (Saturday) and a meeting will be conducted on Monday (October 05) to take a final call,” Professor Mushtaq Siddiqi, the varsity’s Vice-Chancellor said, while speaking on phone.

The VC, however, said that one of the key factors which will impact the decision will be the number of applicants for the entrance exam. “We are facing a stiff resistance from onroll students to conduct their exams online and we now decided to blend the process with both online and offline, (after accessing the number of examinees),” the VC said.