Students at IIIT Bhopal Demand Faculty and Placement Cell

The first batch of graduates at Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Bhopal has been protesting against the no dean, permanent faculty or a placement coordinator. Over 200 students from IIIT Bhopal have been protesting against the same for two weeks. The administration of the institute approached parents of the students and threatened them to credit zero marks in tests.

IIIT Bhopal was established in 2017 i.e., three years ago. Since its inception, the institute has not had a director. IIIT Bhopal lacks a permanent faculty, dean and a placement cell, not to mention the unavailability of a placement coordinator. The institute that was established in a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode three years ago, does not even have a campus of its own. The institute functions from MANIT (Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology), Bhopal Campus.

In support of the demands for the things that the institute lacks, more than 200 students have been protesting for over 8 days now. However, things in the institute have not moved further regarding the same. The administration, in fact, threatened to fail the students in exams for being involved in the protest.

According to the students of IIIT Bhopal, they have always studied under temporary teachers who teach the students for a year and as soon as their contract terminates, a new teacher is appointed to teach them. Showing his concern for the situation, a third-year student said that this inconsistency causes disruption. He said that they approached the Director of MANIT several times but never got a satisfactory response.

The students in their second and third-year of graduation are boycotting their classes and instead are sitting in the corridors of the college campus. To support the cause, on Tuesday, more 100 students sat at the campus gates whole night to protest. Upon asking, the officials at MANIT claimed that the permanent staff is recruited by the Centre and the recruitment does not come under their ambit.

The institute has sent a text message threatening to fail the students if the protests are not withdrawn. Jyoti Singhai chose to remain silent on the issue while the IIIT staff has said that the permanent teacher recruitment is a matter with the Central Government. Meanwhile, in a message sent to the parents of protesting students of IIIT has said that the ward of the parent is involved in in-disciplinary activities inside the campus. In another message sent to the parents, the IIIT Bhopal has threatened to give the student Zero Marks in examinations if protests are not withdrawn.

If the demands of the students are not met, they have said informed that they will send a representative to the office of Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry, New Delhi to enlighten the ministry about the matter. One protestor said that they cannot be trained overnight, for placement drives to happen, it is necessary to have trained placement faculties. He has alleged discrimination against IIIT Bhopal by saying that all other IIITs have IITs to mentor them but only IIIT Bhopal does not.

Students are also running an online protest on twitter with the hashtag of #IIITBhopalCrisis where supporters of the protest can tweet.

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Dheeraj Agarwal, who is the I/C of Participating Institutes for admissions has said that the students are being followed up regularly and no reason to worry is there. Agarwal further said that a meeting to discuss the issues of a student has been held and soon, a placements executive under contractual basis will be appointed there. However, he said that appointing a permanent director is in the hands of the HRD Ministry.

Students have claimed that they were insulted in the meeting by the officials where they were addressed by the name of ‘lowest scorers in JEE,’ and told that they do not deserve any amenities.

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Mr Agarwal has assured the placement focus for this year will be on the students of IIIT Bhopal as MANIT already has placement executives.

The lack of placement cell on campus is creating fear in students’ minds of missing out on job opportunities. The concern of students is genuine as every institute requires a proper administration to run smoothly.

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