Calcutta University has announced that a candidate can be admitted only once in a postgraduate course, scrapping the practice of allowing admission at the postgraduate level multiple times.

At CU, a candidate after pursuing an MA in English, could be admitted in a subject like Buddhist studies to pursue an MA again.

After completing a master’s in Buddhist studies, the candidate was free to pursue postgraduation in a course like linguistics.

A CU official said a section of students, mostly those associated with students’ unions, would continue their stay on the campus and the hostels taking advantage of the clause that allowed admission multiple times.

A notice signed by the registrar on September 11 said: “A candidate can take admission only once in one subject in a postgraduation course.... Candidates having a postgraduate degree and having already submitted their application form for admission to any PG course in 2024 may
apply for a refund of their application/entrance test fees with all relevant papers/documents.”

Registrar Debasis Das said the decision was taken in compliance with the resolution of the syndicate held on February 10, 2020, and confirmed on January 25, 2021.

“The resolution of the syndicate will supersede the eligibility criteria for different PG courses as may have been published in CU admission portals for PG admission 2024,” said the September 11 notice.

“We deemed it fit to enforce what was resolved in the syndicate from this year,” said Das.

A CU official said they had observed that students who prolonged their stay on campus indefinitely by taking advantage of the multiple admissions clause did so solely so they did not lose their grip on the students’ union.

“We have observed that pursuing further studies is not their purpose. They are the ones who are largely responsible for creating unrest on the campus like confining the vice-chancellor till late hours on the campus. They also create tension in hostels. In the name of seniority, they harass the junior students in the hostels. Even the hostel superintendents don’t dare to engage with them out of fear,” the official said.

These senior students who stay on also sneak in other former students, enabling them to stay in the hostels illegally, the official said.

Last month, a second-year student of Carmichael Hostel in central Calcutta wrote to the university’s board of residence and the UGC’s anti-ragging helpline, alleging that a former student, who was staying at the hostel, assaulted him.

UGC taking cognizance of the complaint, sought a report from the university.

“We are trying to bring discipline to the campus through multiple measures and the admission change is part of that,” the official said.

The university in a separate notice recently prohibited unauthorised assembly or political activities on the university campuses and barred outsiders from entering the campus.

CU has kept admission to MTech and MPhil outside the purview of the September 11 notice.

The notice said admission for MTech and MPhil will be “subject to the decision of the committee constituted by the university authority”.