THE INDIAN Institute of Technology IIT-Kanpur has landed in a controversy after it expelled 39 students in an unprecedented move. IIT authorities said the students had only been barred from appearing in their next semester exams on the grounds of indiscipline and poor academic performance.
IIT Kanpur registrar Sanjeev S. Kashalkar dubbed it a routine matter. “We bar those students who don’t perform or are found involved in any misconduct from appearing in next semester examinations,” he said. But the students and their parents alleged the institute was trying to mislead people and that those expelled had been asked to leave the campus immediately. They also accused the IIT faculty of favouritism.
Among the expelled students, 14 were undergraduates, 20 postgraduates and five were pursuing PhD courses. Kashalkar said there were 118 cases of poor performance or indiscipline. The matter was placed before the institute’s senate last November.
“In a review meeting on January 4, the senate cleared 79 students because they had valid reasons for bad performance. Some were unwell or in some trouble during their examinations and couldn’t devote their full time to study while some others promised to improve their performance in the next semester. But the senate didn’t get any valid reason to allow 39 students to appear in the semester exams.
He claimed that the students were given a fair opportunity to defend their case and that their representatives were present in the senate meeting. “The final decision was taken after a thorough inquiry of each student. But these 39 students will be given one more opportunity to represent their case before the senate next month,” he said.
However, Dr O.S. Panwar, a scientist at the National Physical Laboratory in New Delhi and father of Sharad Panwar, one of the terminated students, alleged: “It is a lie that the students will be given another chance to present their case. They have been asked to vacate the hostels.
They always victimise the students who don’t enjoy a good rapport with their subject teachers, but it is for the first time that so many students have been terminated in a day,” he said.
Panwar said his son had a brilliant academic record. “One has to clear two semesters (four subjects) to get enrolled as a PhD student. It was Sharad’s first semester. A second semester student, against whom he had lodged a complaint of misbehaviour, was deputed as his invigilator. This student did a mischief and removed the last page of Sharad’s answer sheet. My son had showed it to the senate. Still, he unexpectedly got the termination letter,” he said.
An undergraduate student who was terminated alleged that the actual reasons for the terminations were not indiscipline or poor performance.
“My physics teacher didn’t like me since I used to argue. They don’t encourage discussions even if it is centred on the subject concerned. Some teachers are arrogant and of a feudal mindset and expect students to touch their feet,” he said.
Kilkit Sachan, another terminated MSc student said he and his parents had sought an appointment with human resource development minister Kapil Sibal to brief him about “ the high- handedness of the IIT”. The institute, however, justified its decision.
IIT- Kanpur’s dean of academic affairs Sanjay Mittal said the harsh decision was taken to maintain the institute’s academic standards. “ We have an academic performance evaluation committee to review the students’ semester- wise performance.
The under- performing students are given counselling, but they are terminated if they fail to improve. But students accused the IIT authorities of high- handedness. Jitendra Verma, an M. Tech student who was terminated last year. “ Many students whose previous academic records are brilliant slip into depression here because of the teachers’ hostile behaviour. How does it happen that a student who performs excellently under one teacher fails under another in the next semester?
