Rift in council visible as PUSU, NSUI seek early exit for BE-MBA students

CHANDIGARH: Members of various student organizations - including representatives of the newly-elected Panjab University Campus Students Council (PUCSC) - made a representation on behalf of engineering students of Panjab University (PU) and protested outside administrative block, where the syndicate meeting was being held on Saturday.
In the process, the rift within the council that has three members from National Students Union of India (NSUI) and one from Panjab University Students Union (PUSU) - also emerged with both groups trying to take credit for the protest.The protesters including council president Divyanshu Budhiraja - a student of UIET himself - asked their demands to be tabled during the syndicate meeting. The president had submitted a memorandum to members seeking option of discontinuing integrated BE-MBA course after completion of the bachelors in engineering part of the course.
"While the university has allowed discontinuation of the course in a phased manner, existing students should also be given an option to leave the course after completing the BE part of it, since they don't get to sit for placements with MBA students and recruiters are also not keen on hiring students of the integrated course," said Budhiraja, who is backed by NSUI. While the university has not admitted students in the course this year, previously admitted students are studying at UIET in the second year and upwards.
PUSU's members were also protesting over the same issue, besides scrapping of the odd-even system of reappearing in exams for the University Institute of Legal Studies. The protest from PUSU was led by student council joint secretary Abhishek Thapar.
Security had to intervene as both groups clashed, with NSUI members claiming that PUSU supporters were the one indulging in "aggressive behaviour".