Lopsided IISER Admission policy discriminates against Biology stream students

This post is a copy of my letter to the Minister for HRD , Govt. of India , protesting against the blatant  discrimination against Biology stream students in the admission process for IISERs.
The letter is self explanatory. All three routes to enter the IISER discriminate explicitly or implicitly against
Biology students and one of them : denial of an equivalent to the IIT exam route (open only to Maths stream students seems patently illegal).

This issue badly needs to be taken up before it is too late for this year's entrants.



To

Hon'ble Shri Kapil Sibal Chandigarh, 25 April , 2010

Minister for HRD

HRD Ministry

New Delhi





Subject: Manifest unconstitutional bias of IISER admission eligibility criteria against Biology stream students.

Dear Minister,

I am a Professor of Physics at Panjab University (http://physics.puchd.ac.in/aulakh/ ) , Adjunct faculty at IISER(Mohali ) (2008-present http://www.iisermohali.ac.in/html/faculty/faculty.html#4 ) as well as a parent of a 12th class student now eager to study science possibly at IISER (Mohali) .

I wish to urgently draw your attention to the skewed eligibility criteria of IISERs which blatantly discriminate against Biology stream students in favour of ``non-medical" stream students even though Biology is one of the 5 year combined BSc-MSc degree specializations offered by the IISERs . The criteria of eligibility for admission are strongly biased against students from the ``medical'' or Biology stream in the 12th class . Moreover this bias far from being corrected is instead being reinforced with every change . I request your urgent intervention to ensure that corrective action is taken before it is too late for students of the Biology stream taking the 12th class exams in 2010. Moreover, as will be apparent from what follows, the discrimination is so manifest that parents of affected children are unlikely to accept the situation and will likely have recourse to the Courts. In that case the admission process of IISERs will be embroiled in controversy and their reputation adversely affected. As a senior academic who is , on the one hand , strongly supportive of the establishment of an IISER in Chandigarh , in fact officially associated with IISER(Mohali) (as Adjunct faculty) and even a member of KVPY interview board at IISER in 2009, 2010, and on the other hand a parent of an affected Class XII student, I am somewhat specially situated to appreciate the issues that have arisen. I hope that by bringing them to your attention before the situation deteriorates your timely intervention may defuse the situation by a few fair and practicable modifications.

The facts of the matter are as follows : there are only three classes of students eligible to apply for admission to IISERs . To quote from the website of IISER (Mohali) (http://www.iisermohali.ac.in/admission10.html) the three channels are : "

1. KVPY (Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana): Students qualified in SA (2008)/ SX(2009)/ SB(2009)/SP (passed 10+2 in 2009/2010).

http://www.iisc.ernet.in/kvpy

2. IIT-JEE 2010: Students obtaining a minimum of 60% marks in Class XII and securing a rank in the regular merit list.

3. STATE/ CENTRAL BOARDS (DIRECT ADMISSION): Students qualifying in Class XII in 2009 or 2010 in Science stream. The State/ Central Boards must be recognized by the MHRD. The cutt-off percentage to be used for the boards for Class X and XII are given in http://www.iiser-admissions.in/marks/. "

Permit me to point out how each of these criteria are in fact biased against students who are from the Biology Stream.

1) Firstly it is matter of record that interview boards at the 2010 KVPY selection interviews specifically observed that there was a strong predominance of students interested in Physics and Maths vis a vis those interested in Chemistry and, most of all, Biology in the list of students called for interviews after the KVPY exams. This is very likely due to the fact that instead of calling a top percentile of students from each of the preference combinations (Any two of Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology) : exercised at the time of taking the KVPY exam ) it appears that the marks from different streams were simply merged and then the top 500 students or so were called for interviews. This is manifestly unjust and biased against Biology stream students since the scores on such different subjects and exams cannot be directly compared. As mentioned this resulted in very few Biology students being called for the KVPY interviews. This channel for eligibility applies to all students who merely passed the KVPY exam and were called for interview even if they were not selected for a scholarship : now they will be given the an equivalent (INSPIRE) scholarship anyway ! As a member of the interview boards I can testify that there were shockingly many interviewees, typically conceptually confused coaching school products, who decidedly do not deserve any such offer of a scholarship to study science. This first channel of selection will be completed long before the other two channels even open ( June/July 2010). Thus only leftover seats will be offered after this channel closes.



2) The second channel is via the IIT-JEE exam. For those Biology students who failed to clear the biased procedure of the KVPY exam the next alternatives are

a) Be selected in the regular merit list of the IIT-JEE exam : which is confined to Physics, Chemistry and Maths i.e to the non-medical stream students !! Thus rather than mitigating the bias against the medical stream that has been observed to operative during KVPY interviews another insuperable hurdle has been raised which Biology students have simply no chance of clearing since they have prepared for the IIT-JEE exam being ``medical stream'' students. Amazingly the national tests that Medical Stream students take, specifically the AIPMT , AIIMS exams etc, are nowhere mentioned as entry routes to IISERs even though all the students in the main list of the IIT-JEE are eligible to apply for IISER admission , and even though these same exams are eligible for qualification for the INSPIRE scholarship (awarded automatically to IISER studenst). Effective exclusion from the channel 2 opened for IIT-JEE qualified students is a manifest violation of the rights of Biology stream students to equal opportunity and is indefensible both from an administrative and Legal viewpoint.

Interestingly, like the criteria for direct admission(see below) , the IIT-JEE criterion is taken from the criteria for the INSPIRE fellowship announced this year. What is amazing is the oversight/bias that chose to completely ignore the other channels for the INSPIRE fellowships that were given(http://www.inspire-dst.gov.in/Inspire-Advertisement.pdf ) on the INSPIRE site in parallel to the eligibility of IIT- JEE selectees :

Table - 2(http://www.inspire-dst.gov.in/Inspire-Advertisement.pdf )

National Level Competitive Examination

 IIT – JEE : Top 10,000 Rank

 AIEEE : Top 10,000 Rank

 CBSE Medical Board : Top 10,000 Rank

 All Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojna (KVPY) Fellows, National Talent Search Examination (NTSE)

Scholars, Olympiad Medalists and Jagadis Bose National Science Talent Search (JBNSTS) Fellows.





Table – 3(http://www.inspire-dst.gov.in/Inspire-Advertisement.pdf )

Other National Level Competitive Examinations for Admission to

 5 years Integrated M.Sc. programs in Basic & Natural Sciences at all Indian Institute of Technology

(IITs).

 All Indian Institute of Science Educations & Research (IISERs)

 National Institute of Science Education & Research (NISER)

 Department of Atomic Energy - Centre for Basic Science (DAE - CBS)

 Any other national level test recognized by DST (conducted by any University or Academic Institute)

for admission to Under-graduate or Integrated M. Sc. program in Natural Sciences and Basic Sciences.



The exclusion of all other categories of INSPIRE eligible students is clearly unfair. Moreover, Sir, as a pre-eminent legal eagle of the country you will appreciate that it creates an interesting loop that allows IIT-JEE selectees to bypass the overall merit lists of the INSPIRE fellowship and automatically receive the INSPIRE scholarship by virtue of having been selected by IISERs because all IISER students get INSPIRE fellowships automatically ! To quote from the IISER website http://www.iisermohali.ac.in/admission10.html : "Students joining IISERs for the 5-year Integrated Dual BS-MS Programme will be awarded INSPIRE/KVPY scholarship of Rs. 5000/- per month."

Thus excellent Biology stream students (at, say, No 1 position on the AIPMT or AIIMS exam ) are not eligible to apply for admission to are being discriminated against in admission via the Channel 2 . The CBSE Medical Board( AIPMT) has not been given any weightage (even though it is the corresponding exam(for Biology students) to the IIT-JEE exam for the `non-medical'' stream students). Even AIPMT toppers cannot apply for admission to a good science course at IISERs. The procedure for offering seats to just the IIT-JEE selectees will be completed by 3 July and only those seats still unfilled after offering admission to the exclusively non-medical stream will be offered to candidates the last remaining channel : direct admission.

b) The final option i.e direct admission is however equally biased against Biology students since it appears to be based on (the rather unrealistic) criteria taken from the criteria for INSPIRE



Board Class 10 % Class 12 %

Andhra Pradesh 91.10 82.30

Assam 77.60 73.40

Bihar 73.20 73.40

CBSE 93.60 92.40

Chhattisgarh 82.50 85.00

Goa 85.80 81.80

Gujarat 86.40 77.80

Haryana 87.00 82.60

Himachal Pradesh 76.30 79.40

ICSE 95.60 93.30

Jammu & Kashmir 84.40 79.20

Jharkhand 78.40 67.20

Karnataka 89.60 88.00

Kerala 93.90 91.80

Madhya Pradesh 85.80 82.60

Maharashtra 80.10 83.80

Manipur 77.00 75.80

Meghalaya 70.50 70.60

Mizoram 86.60 68.20

Nagaland 68.10 73.00

Orissa 81.30 76.10

Punjab 81.30 76.70

Rajasthan 79.10 82.40

Tamil Nadu 90.40 94.50

Tripura 68.80 68.80

Uttar Pradesh 72.50 72.60

Uttarakhand 70.40 68.20

Viswa-Bharathi 93.40 95.80

West Bengal 86.60 82.20

This list is taken from the website

http://www.inspire-dst.gov.in/Inspire-Advertisement.pdf

(2007 class X and 2009 class XII) cut off Table 1.



Even a glance reveals glaring contrasts such as that marks of 95.6%(X)/ 93.3%(XII) in the ICSE (generally conceded to be the toughest school leaving exam) have been ranked on par with 68%(X)/68.8%(XII) of the Tripura Boards exams !! Even if it be conceded that this component is somehow to be construed as a part of the government's scheme for social justice , surely it is obvious that once again the non-medical stream is being favoured because here again the students in XII standard always score much higher on the numerical based Physics/Maths exams than on Biology courses.

As a final irony the IISERs have removed selection by the Olympiad Committees as an eligibility criterion (In this 3 stage selection 35 students are chosen from the first two stages for training as contestants (4 chosen in all) for the International Science Olympiads in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Maths etc) . This is arguably the most difficult exam to be selected in, yet even these select students are to be given no chance to apply at the IISERs. This channel was open till last year but it too has now been closed . Thus the last channel for entry of meritorious Biology has been sealed.



I do not know what can account for this strange set of decisions designed to break the hearts of many an aspiring Biology student. However I am sure that you will appreciate that the above arguments are cogent enough to ensure that such a charade will not pass a rational challenge .

I appeal to you sir to intervene to ensure that the medical stream students are given a fair chance to pursue Science careers relative to the non-medical stream. Indeed it is a truism that the 21st century will be the century of Biological science. It would be shortsighted indeed for your ministry and the IISERs to try to thus squelch those who have chosen to commit themselves to this stream at the outset in order to give preference to the perhaps over estimated talents of the IIT-JEE exam `crackers' that have begun to so dominate our academe.

I would be grateful for a reply at the earliest since the admissions process will soon be over. With thanks for your consideration

Yours Sincerely
Prof. Charanjit Singh Aulakh

aulakh@pu.ac.in

office Tel: 0172-253 4449 ; Fax0172-2783336

Mob. 098768-19759