Barely a 100 admission forms were bought by students and only 20-odd have bothered to submit the filled forms within the due date, forcing the varsity to extend the last date.

Mostly employed persons from Hazira-based industries patronised the course to add to their qualification to enable them get promotion. The SGU syndicate taking a cue from a couple of other universities in Gujarat passed a resolution reserving 100 per cent seats for students from South Gujarat; either graduates or those who have cleared their HSC from the region.

The resolution blocked whatever little chances students from other universities had of getting into SGU. Earlier, graduates from other universities could vie for 10 per cent seats on merit. The decision to reserve 90 per cent seats for local students was taken a couple of years ago.

The logic behind the 100 per cent reservation for local students for the part-time as well as the regular course is: when the state government bears the cost of education subsidy why should students from other states be allowed to benefit.

In the process, whatever little reputation the university had was sullied. Students' apathy has not remained restricted only to the evening course. Even the regular course has suffered due to the decision. Thousands of forms are issued every year for the regular course, a number which has come down considerably this year. Ironically, the Syndicate had not given a thought to the part-time course and discussed the reservation issue in reference to regular course students only.

Vice-chancellor Premkumar Sharda told Express Newsline on Sunday he had written to the state government to direct its universities to reconsider their decision on reserving all seats for local students. The very idea of university is defeated by such reservation, he said, adding there should be mobility at least within the state. He personally prefers some seats be reserved for students from universities from other states as well. The issue should be debated at length by the joint board of vice-chancellors as also by the state government, he felt.

Leakage of question paper and the subsequent loss of face the university had is also cited as one of the reasons for the poor response from students. Examination for an MBA paper had been cancelled and taken a week later after a cyclostyled copy of the question paper was found from a book inside the examination hall.

A retired judge, who inquired into the leak, submitted his report on Saturday. Sharda said he would look into the report. Sources said the judge had not been able to pinpoint anything and the student who was found with the cyclostyled paper changed his version many a time.