Tough time for BU students
The calendar year batch of first year MBA, MCA and M. Sc. Chemistry students of the School of Distance Education of Bharathiar University will face their examinations on December 10. Only that most of them do not have study material to prepare from.The batches enrolled for the course in January 2007. The annual fee is Rs. 8,470 for Bharathiar University graduates, while it is Rs. 8,845 for those from other universities. The course fee is inclusive of the study material.The first contact class for the MBA students was held in August when they were given the syllabus and the list of reference books. Since the course fee was inclusive of the study material, the students were left with no option but to wait. Only the wait became endless.They have been approaching the university seeking material only to be told that it would be available at a later date. “The first set of books for the MBA students was given in the first week of November. After that there has been no material forthcoming. When we went today to the university to demand what had happened, the staff of the School of Distance Education told us to wait because they had gone to some local stores to purchase the books. After a long wait we got some books. There is still one more remaining and the examinations will begin shortly,” says an aggrieved candidate.The crowd at the university on Friday stood testimony to the fact that most of the students were facing the same problem.
However, when contacted, the Director of School of Distance Education, N. Balasubramanian, said that 95 per cent of the course materials had reached the students well in advance. The candidates are at yet another disadvantage. Since they follow the annual examination pattern, they will have to write 10 papers from December 10. Anybody can guess the kind of preparation that they will have to do.This did not end here. Their destiny took another cruel twist when they went to the examination centre to collect their hall ticket. The centre that was mentioned in the communication from the university reads: Perks Matriculation Higher Secondary School. When they reached the school on Friday morning, they were told that the centre was shifted to Hindusthan Arts and Science College. When they reached the college, the college was unaware of any such arrangement. With no books and no information about the correct centre, students studying in the distance education mode feel that they have definitely been left at a distance.
