Bhubaneswar: Students enrolled in self-financing programmes through the Student Academic Management System (SAMS), the state’s centralised online admission system, will be eligible to vote and contest students’ union elections, but those pursuing self-financing courses under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode will be excluded from the electoral process.
Student union aspirants discuss campus issues at the Utkal university premises in Bhubaneswar on Thursday
Student union aspirants discuss campus issues at the Utkal university premises in Bhubaneswar on Thursday
Student union aspirants discuss campus issues at the Utkal university premises in Bhubaneswar on Thursday
The higher education department notified the eligibility rules earlier this week. According to it, the eligibility norm for the elections says a candidate must be a regular, full-time student of a higher education institution, admitted through SAMS in either a regular or self-financing programme. It specifically states that students enrolled under distance education or PPP mode will not be eligible to contest the election.While this created confusion among self-financing students, officials in the higher education department have clarified that self-financing students admitted through SAMS and having a valid SAMS ID can participate in the election, both as voters and candidates. However, self-financing students enrolled under the PPP mode will neither be eligible to vote nor contest as candidates.A senior official of the department said while both are self-financing programmes, the two differ in their mode of operation. Students admitted to self-financing programmes through SAMS are recognised as bona fide students of the institution. PPP-mode self-financing courses, on the other hand, are run in partnership with an outside agency selected under the department’s prescribed framework. This keeps them out of the department’s administrative framework, he explained.“While SAMS-admitted self-financing students are treated as eligible participants in the electoral process, those studying in PPP-mode programmes are excluded altogether,” he added.Meanwhile, Utkal University saw a record 219 nomination forms collected ahead of Friday’s filing of nominations.
