Jadavpur University has written to the higher education department seeking permission to hold counselling to fill 150-odd BTech seats.
The dean of engineering at JU has written to the government that they were ready to hold the exercise, subject to the approval from the department.
Of the 1,253 BTech seats at JU, 58 remained vacant after a centralised counselling, conducted by the Bengal JEE board, ended on September 30.
The vacancy count later shot up in phases as students who had enrolled at JU shifted to IITs and NITs, said a JU official. The university wants to fill the vacant seats before classes start on November 9.
At Calcutta University, 43 of the 252 BTech seats at the entry level are still vacant and the university is awaiting the government’s nod to conduct counselling independently to fill the seats.
JU dean Bhaskar Gupta said: “Once the department issues an order on decentralised counselling (counselling held independently by the institutes), the university will start the process.”
The Telegraph on Friday met a student named Oishik Nandi on the JU campus. He said he had come to the university to get his enrolment in the department of computer science and engineering cancelled as he has been offered a slot in the electrical engineering department of IIT Kharagpur.
Asked why he left JU’s most coveted department, the Howrah boy said: “I think an IIT offers more facilities than any other institute. Besides, it’s my dream to study at IIT Kharagpur.”
An official in JU’s engineering faculty said that since the counselling for admission to the IITs and the NITs was held after the state JEE board’s counselling, many students have got their enrolment cancelled.
“That’s why the vacancy count is soaring,” he said.
Better infrastructure and better placement possibilities at the IITs and the NITs are drawing students away from institutes like JU.
JU vice-chancellor Suranjan Das had in an appeal to former students on October 24 said the university was struggling to maintain “academic excellence, especially in science and technology” because of funds constraints. Government funding — state and central — “is becoming extremely inadequate”, Das had said in his appeal.
“It is obvious from the VC’s statement that the university lacks funds to upgrade infrastructure. It is no surprise that students are leaving for places that offer better infrastructure,” a teacher told this newspaper on Friday.
The university had last year decided to send a withdrawal form to all enrolled students, seeking to know how many of them might finally decide to back out.
A JU official said they might do so this year, too, after the state higher education department allows the university to conduct independent counselling.
“An updated vacancy figure will emerge then,” the official said. Last year, JU had held independent counselling for 437 BTech seats.
Citation presented to Mittal
The alumni association of St Xavier’s College (Autonomous) presented a citation to Arcelor Mittal chair-man and steel baron L.N. Mittal at his London residence on October 9.
The citation was presented by Father Dominic Savio, principal of St Xavier’s Col-lege and the president of the alumni association and its sec-retary, Firdausul Hasan.
“It was a gesture to express gratitude to him for his generous contribution towards taking his alma mater, St Xavier’s College, to greater heights,” said Hasan. The seventh chapter of Beyond Boundaries, the international meet of St Xavier’s alumni members from chapters all over the world, was held in London, from October 7 to 9.
