Vadodara : Massive Rally at MS University Demands Priority Admission for Local Students

VADODARA : A massive rally of students, former students, and political figures from both the BJP and the Congress converged on MS University’s campus in Vadodara on Tuesday. The demonstration was a vociferous response to the first-year commerce entrance policies, with participants demanding priority admission for local students.

The demonstrators at MSU in Vadodara, dressed in black and screaming chants against the Vice-Chancellor, indicated their unhappiness with the existing admissions policies. At times, the event became violent, with demonstrators clashing with police. The activists issued an ultimatum, giving the university administration 48 hours to respond to their requests.

The protesters’ central demand is that the commerce faculty prioritize local students for admittance, even if their grades are as low as 35%. Prashant Patel, a former student leader, underlined that Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad founded the institution to give quality and inexpensive education to the youngsters of Vadodara and the surrounding territory.

Amit Gotikar, another former student leader, challenged the administration’s choice to put the commerce faculty’s merit cut-off at 75 percent. He emphasized that this policy excludes many local students and stated that he is willing to maintain the protest until the requests are granted. “We have protested for 40 to 50 days in the past, and we will continue to fight for the students’ rights,” declared Gotikar.

In reaction to the protests, MS University Registrar K.M. Chudasma said that local MPs and MLAs had met. The university opted to enhance the seat allotment for local students by 5%, bringing it from 70% to 75% of the total seats available to first-year commerce students. This change will allow more than 1,400 local kids to enroll. Chudasma further stated that additional direction from the administration would be sought to ensure success in this regard.