NAGPUR: In a bold and praiseworthy step, the College of Agriculture in the city is starting a pre-qualification examination for all the post graduate students in all the nine subjects being taught in the college.
Efforts for such an examination a few years back had drawn a lot of opposition. But this time, the college's associate dean VS Gonge has taken the decision after seeking consent of students as well as the teachers. "It is an effort to improve the future prospects of the passing out post graduate students. Immediately after MSc, students have to face job interviews as well as interviews for entrance to doctoral degree. But truly speaking, except for academic information, they are not at all equipped to face these interviews and have little knowledge of future job or research prospects. This exam will prepare them for all this," said Gonge.
True, most MSc students after post graduation do not even know anything about national or state level research or academic institutions in the country. The pre-qualifying exam will consist of 50-mark objective questions covering academic portion, general knowledge as well as names and works of various state and national agricultural bodies and institutions. Agriculture post graduates have good scope in banks especially dedicated ones like the NABARD. This examination will expose them to all this information.
Students' knowledge on various crops in country, cultivation practices, books and journals in the field of agriculture, both national and international ones, will also be tested through this examination. "It is basically making our students more presentable to the world of job and research in agriculture. It will be a mandatory examination and hence every student will have to take it before appearing for the final university post graduate degree examination, but will be restricted to only eight specialities being taught in the college and not other subjects taught in other colleges under the Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi VIdyapeeth at Akola.
