In a surprising move, the department of Information Technology, MU has decided to discontinue the under-graduate BSc IT course from this year.
In a surprising move, the department of Information Technology, MU has decided to discontinue the under-graduate BSc IT course from this year. Students’ unions have cried foul and said that it will be detrimental for students from the economically weaker section. Meanwhile, professors from the commerce stream have complained that the time table of semester V has the nomenclature of previous courses as a result of which there is a lot of confusion.
According to Santosh Gangurde, vice-president of the Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena (MNVS) the BSc IT course had been started in 2001 in the university and 30 affiliated colleges. “There is a high demand for the course and apart from the department there are 225 colleges offering the course currently. The discontinuation of the course is a regressive move and will adversely affect students,” said Mr Gangurde.
The course is one of the few undergraduate courses offered by university departments as the main thrust is on post-graduate courses only. In the academic year around 12,000 students have been admitted to the first year of BSc (IT) in colleges. The IT department had 120 seats which did not see any admissions this year. Mr Gangurde said that when they demanded a response from the department they were told that the varsity’s ad-hoc Board of Studies in IT had recommended closure of the course and the academic council approved the closure in May. “The course will be shut down gradually in two years,” said an official from the university.
