MBA admission stirs up a controversy

[sajiv]

Bangalore: Two sections in Bangalore University are at loggerheads over admissions to the MBA course offered at the Canara Bank School of Management Studies, a department under the university.

The school is attempting to fill 88 seats, while only 60 have been sanctioned. In a notification on September 10 signed by the Registrar, the school called for applications to fill the additional 28 seats.

According to the Central Postgraduation Admission Committee, all the available seats or sanctioned seats come under the government quota.

There is no scope for any additional seats under the committee rules.

All the seats are filled through the Postgraduate Common Entrance Test (PGCET) conducted by the committee.

A Syndicate member, on condition of anonymity, said that the university, thus, could not call for applications for the additional seats. "The university officials are violating the admission norms." The norms clearly state that no extra seats are permitted, he said. He said he had written to the committee seeking clarification in this regard more than two months ago.

K. Janardhanam, Director of Canara Bank School of Management Studies, said all the government seats had been filled through PGCET. "The seats mentioned in the notification are under the university quota. These seats are over and above the government seats," he maintained.

The issue triggered a furore in the Syndicate meeting, after which the university decided to write to the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms seeking information under the PGCET Act and Rules to see if the school could offer extra seats.

B. Shivaraj, Chairman of Department of Business Administration, University of Mysore, said no university department was empowered to fix the intake.

"The department cannot increase intake through any quota either. All seats in university departments have to be fixed by the government and are under the government quota only," he said.

A senior official from Mangalore University said that Bangalore University had clearly violated the rules. "A university department cannot even fill a vacant seat on its own, leave alone announcing extra seats.

The PGCET cell is the sole authority which can decide," he added.

This reporter made several attempts to contact VTU officials, but in vain. A few Syndicate members from Bangalore University are now demanding an inquiry into the issue in the interests of the student community. The university's reputation would suffer if such admissions were to be made, they claimed.