by Sabretooth
In a bizarre turn of events the admission process at Thapar came under direct fire from various sources when, taking a leaf out of Delhi University’s little stunt, the academic front of TU decided to raise the level of AIEEE Cut-Offs required for admission into batch 2011-12. Reports say that if the college strictly follows the Cut-Offs they have set for this year’s admission, even Biotech would get filled by AIR 14000. That would make the top branches at Thapar one of the most sought after courses in the country, surpassing even the likes of IIIT Hyderabad, BITS Pilani, NIT Trichy and even some IITs
Er…… That was what the reports claimed. Now for some reality check!
If the statistics from the last three years are observed, we find some major anomalies in the otherwise projected expectations. Year 2008 saw the Cut-Offs suffering a minor setback with branches accommodating students at ranks with which they might not have secured seats had they been in the competition a year before (much to the relief of those who had applied). CS went till about AIR 9K, ECE till AIR 10K, Mech/EIC – 14K, EE – 17, CIV – 18, CHEM – 20 and BIOTECH – 35. Comes year 2009 batch and the charts are singing a different story altogether. CS – 17k, ECE – 18K, Mech – 20K, EIC – 23 and so forth with BIOTECH till 60K I think. To add to it Thapar passed an educational reform according to which the students of the same branch started classes with the branch from the 1st year only, instead of the mixed batch system prevalent in the previous years, thus KLPDing the Mechanchees (though they got their reason to smile a few days later). So technically speaking the college had suffered academically and now the new reform was meant to make it suffer socially as well. Similar dwindling stats support my argument for the year that came next as well. It is rumored that some seats went vacant and got filled by the December Test (another educational reform) introduced by Thapar the previous session.
During a brainstorming sessi
on, 29% chose “increasing fees” as the root cause of the falling Cut-Offs. The rest did not want to sound cheap and hence opted for safer ones like management (though I never figure out what this one always means), Placements, Campus green cover, etc.
During an interview when we asked about the agenda behind such a move, while quoting the above said stats, someone very high up from the Thapar Mechanical faculty quoted – “Dekhiye ji, such decisions are not based upon mere data and statistics like number of applicants, College Fees, Placement records, etc. Sometimes you have to go with the gut factor. Unke mann mein aaya, unhone cut-offs set kar diye. Hum log pichle saal bhi waise hi padate the, is saal bhi waise hi padayenge. Khali reh gyi seats, tab bi classes to humein leni hi hongi. Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go to UFC for my daily Cardios.” We stood there gaping at his answer while he kick started his scooter and zoomed away. Only when he crossed the T- Point did we realize that his words could have been sarcastic as well. Turns out teachers are as equally fed up with these annual changes in the student admission procedures.
In view of all these facts it becomes a little hard to digest ho
w would they manage to fill their seats without students applying for the same. When this info reached the ears of the honorable HRD minister Mr. Kapil Sibal he raised his hands in exasperation, rolled his eyes and said – “First DU now TU. I agree Jairam has praised their faculty and everything but this is the limit. I think they are taking his words very seriously even though we in the cabinet don’t” – laughing at his joke before continuing – “but now that this has been brought to my attention I think I would have a chat with them as well. Though I highly doubt they would stick to it. They never do.”
On an ending note I would like to comment on the futility of it all. SRCC is the top college for commerce in the country with about every one of the lakhs of aspirants vying for its limited number of seats. To add to it the college fees is under Rs 10,000 (Annually :P) whereas we are about to scale even greater heights with the new session. So unless the college sets its priorities right – Pupils or Paise – it is highly unlikely that they would achieve success with the Cut-Offs that they have set.
