Hundreds of Bachelor of Engineering (BE) students at the Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMI) have been protesting since the past week demanding that their course be declared as a full-time one from the academic sessions 2014-15 to 2018-19. The students have been staging a sit-in blocking the university's main gate.

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The university's engineering department offers two courses -- Bachelor of Technology (BTech) in the morning and Bachelor of Engineering (BE) in the evening only — offering regular classes. However, the BE course is yet to be approved as a full-time course by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE).

The students alleged that the varsity neither mentioned the nature of the course in its prospectus nor did it clarified the same at the time of admission. Even the university's website does not say that it is a part-time course. "Due to the part-time nature of the course, hundreds of students have been declined government and private jobs in the past few years. They could not join regular MTech course. The callousness of the administration has ruined the lives of several thousand students," said Zubair, one of the agitating students.

Currently, as many as 1,400 students are pursuing the four-year course and the university is set to enrol another batch of 350 students in the upcoming session. "The future of all these students is at stake. The administration had on Tuesday told us that they are in talks with the AICTE officials and if required, it will be moving to the court to convert the course into a full-time one," he said.

Meanwhile, the administration said that the course was started as an additional qualification for Diploma Engineering holders who are already employed in 1979. "The Dean and Heads of Departments of Engineering Faculty and Dean Students' Welfare held a meeting with AICTE, the nodal agency of the Government of India for technical education and JMI is waiting for their response as to the modalities of conversion of the course from part-time into a full-time programme," it said in a statement.

The university appealed the agitating student to stop the protest. However, they denied calling off the sit-in saying, "The administration has made several such false claims earlier as well. We will continue our protest till the affidavit is filed in the High Court from admin's side," said another agitating student Shahzib.