Hyderabad varsity’s exam reforms to help Dalit students

The University of Hyderabad (UoH) is planning major reforms in the examination system to make things easier for Dalit students who come from a difficult background.

The Central university, which was rocked by agitation after the Dalit Ph D scholar Rohit Vemula’s suicide in a campus hostel on January 17, 2016, is now back to normal.

Rohit was one of the five students who were debarred from hostels for allegedly attacking ABVP campus unit president N Susheel Kumar.

Shutdown The university was shut down for two weeks after the suicide with the agitators demanding action against Union Ministers Smiriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya, besides Vice-Chancellor P Apparao.

“This has been the biggest ever crisis the university has faced since its inception in 1974. But now we are not only back to the regular academic schedule but also trying to prevent any recurrence of the tragic incident,’’ M Periasamy, in-charge Vice-Chancellor, told Business Line .

Periasamy, the third senior most professor in the university, assumed charge in controversial circumstances after students demanded the resignation of his predecessor, Srivastava, who acted as in-charge vice-chancellor after Apparao went on long leave.

‘Inclusive institution’ When asked on the measures being taken to prevent any discrimination against the Dalit students, he said: “As UoH is an inclusive institution, we have about one fourth of students who come from socially oppressed sections of society. I feel the present examination system is not in favour of them,’’ he said. There are 5,500 students on the rolls.

At present, the examination system is a combination of continuous assessment (internals) for 40 per cent while remaining 60 per cent of marks are awarded on the basis of a written exam.

“If we reduce the importance of written exam by another 20 marks and give more importance to oral tests, it might be useful for students from rural backgrounds. I find they are more articulate orally than in written exams,” Periasamy said.

Academic panel Plans are also afoot to constitute a panel of senior professors, which will act as a filter for issues which go to proctorial board.

“The decisions of proctorial board are generally tough to be reviewed in any university. We want to provide another window to settle any issue in a student-friendly manner,’’ the vice-chancellor said.

According to Periasamy, the suicides of Dalit students in the university (nine in last 10 years) were mainly due to ‘administrative lapses’ such as inordinate delay in allotting supervisors to the research scholars.

“I am proposing that a faculty should not be allowed to take general candidates for research supervision unless and until he has a numerically proportionate number of Dalit students/scholars,’’ he said.

However, all the proposed changes will have to be routed through the academic council and executive council which have to ratify these aspects.

‘No delay’ There will be no delay or disruption in the admission schedule for the next academic year, the process of which begins next month.

Periasamy, a professor of chemistry and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar awardee, is also planning to take up a project on renewable energy based on a new technology by involving students and unemployed youth.

“The project is pending with the Ministry of Human Resource Development and we are in the process of filing a patent for the process,” he said, adding that a knowledge park should be set up to help students.

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