Students seeking admission to courses at Pondicherry University have been facing a dilemma since Wednesday as the university suddenly announced that all the admissions and fees payment will take place through an online portal starting June 26, 2019. While the entrance results are already out and the counselling dates for few departments have already been announced, the university administration published a circular denoting online fee payment for several courses. But there was allegedly no prior information regarding the online fee payment method and it was not mentioned in the admission prospectus already available on the university website.
"In the university admission prospectus, they never mentioned the online mode of counselling or the admission process. On Wednesday morning, the administration announced that the entire procedure will be conducted online, so most of the students, especially those coming from rural areas do not have access to the internet and are not being able to apply. They are the ones who are the most affected by this sudden decision. Today since morning we have been getting calls from students and parents inquiring about the online application and the procedure of admission. SFI has put out a statement stating that the university has decided to conduct the admission procedure online so if any student has a query or doubt they can contact the members for help. Students have already begun applying online since yesterday evening and they have a lot of queries. We feel that the university shouldn't suddenly change the procedures like this, they at least could have mentioned it earlier. We are trying our best to help the applicants as they are facing so many difficulties in filling up the forms," says A Anand, former president of SFI Pondicherry University, who is currently the DYFI president and a student who will complete his LLM course in September.
All the applicants and their parents began raising concerns about the new policy, owing to which, the Students' Federation of India (SFI) members submitted a letter to the Registrar on Wednesday evening demanding clarification about the changes in the admission procedure. The student body members also expressed some dissatisfaction with the administration not giving prior information about the new policy in the admission prospectus. "The Pondicherry University Unit Committee of Students' Federation of India is deeply concerned regarding the admission procedures of Pondicherry University for the academic year of 2019-20. The University administration has to take immediate action regarding the issue. SFI Pondicherry University is also highly concerned about the issues regarding the admission process," the members said in the letter.
Following SFI's letter, the university administration has updated the online portal providing guidelines for fee payment on Thursday morning. The candidates also received individual messages regarding online admission and fee payment procedures.
The administration has said that this decision was taken keeping in mind the feasibility of the students. "We have done this solely to facilitate the students. Now they can sit at the comfort of their homes anywhere in the country and upload their documents on the online portal for admission. Earlier they had to come to the campus for the entire admission procedure and also for the payment of fees, hostel accommodation and other necessary processes. We have done this change only for the courses which do not require the applicant to attend a group discussion and interview. This is like a trial run, we are aware that students are facing difficulties but we are continuously updating the website and there's also a 24/7 helpline number present," K Mahesh, Assistant Registrar, PU, told Edex. He also added that the details were not provided in the prospectus earlier but now they are updating the required information on the admissions portal.
However, the remaining set of demands put forth by SFI members are still under consideration and the applicants are still somewhat confused. "They didn't give prior information in the admission prospectus, they suddenly put the new instructions and that may trouble many students. That is our main concern. For instance, if there are any failures in transactions, they have to mention the remedies and further courses of action, they haven't stated anything and that's why we demanded this," explains Uvais CP, President, SFI (PU).
