Srinagar, Nov 08: The Kashmir University (KU) authorities on Wednesday formally closed the admission process for PG and other programmes after facing a massive flak for keeping it open for over six months in a desperate bid to fill up vacant seats.
As per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), after facing resentment, the Director Admissions, KU, Prof. M Farooq Mir issued the Admission Closure Notice, which stated that “Admission process for PG (Professional and Non-Professional) and other programmes offered through the University of Kashmir shall stand closed from November 13, 2023.” However, the notification said that courses/programmes like M.Tech, M.Pharm, LLM, 4-year B.Tech (Lateral Entry) shall remain open till further orders.
The Director’s notice read that Heads/ Directors/ Coordinators/Principals shall ensure that the admission related formalities be completed up to and including November 13, 2023 till 4.30pm and “no request for admission whatsoever can be entertained.”
Notably, KU started the admission process somewhere in April this year and held the entrance examination in May-June. Since then, the admission process has remained open for General and Self-Finance categories owing to a huge number of vacant seats for the first time in its history.
Academicians had voiced serious concerns over failure of the University to close the admissions, saying the University was employing desperate measures to fill vacant seats “at the expense of merit and quality of candidates.”
The University for the first time even called for Spot Admissions to fill up the vacant seats across its main and satellite campuses.
The newly-introduced courses in Main, North and South campuses found few takers, reflecting the University’s lackadaisical approach in doing proper ground work before starting the new courses.
“Even with today’s present Admission Closure Notice, the Director Admissions has kept admission open in few courses like MTech, LLM and B Tech where the University is unable to find takers,” said a KU teacher, wishing anonymity.
He said by keeping admissions open endlessly, the University has cut a sorry figure and created a very bad perception in the eyes of the public.
Sources said at least 90 percent of self finance category seats remained vacant this year, while nearly 80 seats haven’t been filled in General category also. “The Kashmir University authorities issued an academic calendar for 2023 in August when admissions are still open in November.
Children have developed this perception of delayed degrees in KU which is one of the reasons for poor response from students,” said another assistant professor.
He said another reason for the loss of student strength could be the failure of KU to hold regular academic audits to assess viability of its courses—(KNO)
