Kochi: Their classes are yet to start, but several aspiring undergraduate students of the Maharaja's College, Ernakulam, have already had a bad lesson. The admission process to undergraduate courses in all the 20 departments of the prestigious institute has been bungled to such an extent that the college authorities had to cancel the allotment list within hours of its publishing. As the undergraduate classes are set for a delayed start as a corollary of the negligence, the college management played down the issue and blamed software change for errors.
Admissions based on the first list of allotments were held on June 13, but the second list which was published on June 20 had to be cancelled after some applicants and faculty members flagged grave errors in it. The errors included allocating seats to applicants who have already secured admission to various courses in the college, irregularities in the selection of students under reservation categories and violation of rules, said Swalih Afridi, an applicant who raised the issue before the college management on Thursday. The list was cancelled, apparently after Afridi threatened to lodge a complaint with the authorities concerned.
Information on the college's website confirmed that the second allotment has been postponed in order to rectify some technical errors. The lists and dates of interview will be published soon, a message on the website says. However, a faculty member of the college stated the new list will be published on June 27. Admissions will take place on June 29 and 30 while classes will start on July 2. The dates have been mentioned in a letter by principal K N Krishnakumar, a copy of which Onmanorama has accessed. Krishnakumar confirmed the dates to Onmanorama over phone on Thursday night.
The faculty member, on condition of anonymity, admitted that there were serious errors in the second list of allotment. The faculty member said some of them had already warned the governing council (GC) which manages the college about possible errors in the allotment list. "We had requested them (GC) at least to let the heads of the departments crosscheck the lists with the applications before publishing them, but they were not willing to heed us," he said.
The admissions as well as the commencement of classes in the institute, known for its excellence in academic and non-academic affairs, is being delayed at a time when other autonomous institutions under Mahatma Gandhi University have already started classes for undergraduate courses.
Meanwhile, Afridi alleged that there was no transparency in the preparation of the list and the admission procedure. "The very fact that they have not uploaded the new details on the website despite the principal informing the faculty about it shows that they want to keep crucial information hidden from the public," the 18-year-old student, who passed Plus Two this year, claimed. He said the list that was cancelled on Thursday indicated that quotas for categories such as Latin Catholics and visually challenged students were filled, whereas there were still vacancies. He also pointed out that a student who had already got admission in the Malayalam department was for interview again, in the second list. "Had such anomalies gone unnoticed, several applicants who deserve admission would have lost opportunity," he said.
The principal, meanwhile, maintained that the issues occurred due to some errors in entering the data. The list was prepared by a software developed by the National Informatics Centre, whereas a software made by the LBS Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, was used until last year. The software was changed as per a directive from the government, he said.
"While preparing the second list, we missed out on some candidates who had reported during the first allotment. Now, we have ensured that such errors would not occur again," Krishnakumar said.
SFI on Thursday staged a protest in the campus against the callous attitude of the authorities which resulted in the goof up.
There were 9,000-odd applicants for the 695 seats in various UG courses. Of them, 490 students have already been appointed.
Maharaja's College was declared autonomous from the academic year 2014-2015. Mahatma Gandhi University has authorised the college to carry out the UG and PG admissions under the autonomous system.
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