Students left in the lurch as colleges discontinue MBE

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 12

The future of over 200 students, who took admission to the Master’s in Business Economics (MBE) course, is at stake as after a month of the admission and commencement of the classes, two of the Panjab University-affiliated colleges have discontinued the course.

Reason: On July 5, 2014, the UGC sent a communication to the university that the nomenclature of the Master’s in Business Economics should be changed to MA (Business Economics) or MCom (Business Economics) or MBA (Business Economics) from the next session.

However, “ignoring the notification and adopting a lackadaisical attitude”, the university authorities reportedly did not inform the colleges not to admit students to the course this year as no decision had been taken on the nomenclature by the authorities.

As a result, two colleges in the city, which were offering the course, went ahead with the admissions this year also for a batch of 40 students each. After fresh instructions from the UGC and the university in this regard, the college authorities are now asking the students to either shift to some other course or leave the college as the MBE course has been discontinued.

Clueless about what to do, students today turned up at the university to meet officials and demanded that the MBA (Business Economics) should  be started in the colleges. The university authorities are reportedly planning to start the MA (Business Economics) and MCom (Business Economics) courses. However, a final decision in this regard is yet to be taken. SD College senior faculty member and PU Senator Jagwant Singh alleged that the university authorities were responsible for “ruining the future of these students”. He said for the past one year, he had been taking up the matter with the authorities, but in vain. The university authorities conducted the CET for admission to this course due to which the college continued admitting students.

DAV College Principal BC Joshan said students came to raise the issue but the final decision had to be taken by the university.