Mujahidul Islam, JB Correspondent
In the thesis distribution of the 15th rotation of the Department of Geography and Environment of Jagannath University for the 2023-2024 session, the names of the 20% students issued by the university were published to provide research opportunities. Many students are under mental stress due to this.
When this decision was made in a notice signed by the chairman of the Geography and Environment Department of JB on February 4, 2025, students were worried about their master's research and were skeptical of the university's decision.
It is worth noting that on January 19, an office order signed by the university's Registrar Professor Dr. Md. Gias Uddin was issued. The office order states that to be a supervisor or co-supervisor of students taking up postgraduate theses at Jagannath University, they must have a PhD, MPhil or Masters degree with thesis. In addition, a qualified teacher cannot be the supervisor of more than three students in a postgraduate class in one academic year.
At the time of admission to the first year of Bachelor (Honours) and BBA at the university, 20 percent of the seats in the departments or institutes where the number of seats is 80 or less and 10 percent of the seats in the departments where the number of seats is more than 80 will be allowed to study with a thesis in the postgraduate level. Students who have a minimum CGPA of three (3.00 or 4.00) at the Bachelor (Honours) or BBA level will be allowed to take up a thesis.
It further states that supervisors of students undertaking the thesis will be determined through a lottery or in a manner adopted by the academic committee of the department and institute.
(However, in no case can the supervisor be assigned according to the student's preference.)
If a qualified teacher does not want to be a supervisor and there is no alternative qualified teacher, then that qualified teacher must become the supervisor.
In this regard, the Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Dr. Md. Rezaul Karim, said, "We have formed a committee regarding this thesis. They will give a report. According to their report, a new decision will come soon. I hope a good decision will come."
But since the issuance of the office memorandum in this regard, criticism and anger have started among the students. There has been a storm of criticism in the media regarding this. It came to the attention of the administration as many news items were published in newspapers, portals and TV media.
Later, the university's public relations office announced that positive changes had been made to the previous policy to make the acceptance of theses at the postgraduate level easier and more student-friendly.
It has happened. For example—
1. Previously, a supervisor could supervise a maximum of 2 students; this has now been increased to 3.
2. The CGPA eligibility criteria for students to undertake the thesis has been set at 3.0.
3. If a teacher has completed a thesis at the master's level during his or her academic career, he or she will also be considered eligible to be the thesis supervisor.
4. It has been decided to waive the maximum percentage requirement for students, which will come into effect very soon.
But it is known that such a notice has been issued by the Department of Geography and Environment as no proper decision has been made on this matter.
When students concerned about the issue went to the registrar's office, along with the chairman of the Department of Geography and Environment, students interested in the thesis were asked to register their names and expressed hope that the Academic Council's decision would come soon.
