None of the 500 students who passed Calicut University’s dual core (formerly double main) undergraduate programmes is likely to get a postgraduate admission apparently because of an anomaly in the new index calculation.
As per the new index formula set for PG admissions, the dual core students will lose their marks heavily. Besides, the decision of respective boards of studies to award 10% weightage to single core students will further darken the chances of their double core counterparts.
Calicut University has a total of 500 students in dual core undergraduate programmes offered through certain colleges, including SNGS College, Pattambi. Formerly called double main BA, these programmes offered the students an opportunity to study two subjects like English, Arabic, History, Islamic History, Sociology and Malayalam with equal importance to both. These programmes had some charm before the introduction of inter-disciplinary studies.
The Confederation of Kerala College Teachers (CKCT), in a memorandum given to the university, called upon the authorities to address the anomaly in setting the index for PG admissions and to do justice to dual core students.
“The university is promoting the dual core programmes. And when it comes to PG admissions, the university says no to them. This is ridiculous. The anomaly should be corrected. The problem should be addressed on a war footing,” said CKCT Senate members Abida Farooqui and Abdul Jabbar A.T.
“At a time when multi-disciplinarity is encouraged at state and national levels and many integrated programmes are being introduced in the University of Calicut as a positive measure to incorporate multi-disciplinarity in education, such regressive decisions that take a step-motherly attitude towards dual core students are unfortunate,” they said.
The university authorities said they would consider the matter sympathetically and address the issue soon.
