Three years on, BUHS has left 2 lakh paramedical students with no exams or results and a bleak future

Sampurnanand Singh got admitted to bachelor of pharmacy (BPharm) at the Krishna Institute of Nursing and Paramedical Sciences in Bihar’s Samastipur three years ago. By now, he should have completed his sixth semester and begun the mandatory industry training. But he is still awaiting his third-semester result, with the next term tests nowhere in sight.

Singh is now getting anxious about repaying the Rs 4 lakh loan he took under the state government’s Bihar Student Credit Card Yojna for the programme. “We can’t do any other course. Our time is being wasted. Students are getting depressed and many are talking about leaving the course. Some are looking to continue education in other states,” he said.

Singh is among around two lakh students pursuing health science education, including ayurveda, homoeopathy, unani, nursing, paramedical (allied healthcare professions) and pharmacy courses, in 250-odd colleges across the state, who have been facing the same ordeal for the last three years. Their exams and results, and in some cases, even the university registrations, have been delayed by as long as one-and-a-half years.

Early this month, a few dozen of these students staged a protest against the delay at the temporary headquarters of the newly created Bihar University of Health Sciences (BUHS) – the affiliating institute of these colleges – in Patna. The varsity assured them to issue an academic calendar by the end of the month and bring things to order within the next few – a promise the students have little faith in.

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BUHS Bihar: Aryabhatta Knowledge University shift, delays

The Bihar government had established BUHS in 2022 as an exclusive affiliating and examination body for all the health science institutes, including medical and dental colleges, except for those under private and deemed universities. The move, which was aimed at bringing uniformity in and enhancing quality of medical education, saw the colleges shift from the Aryabhatta Knowledge University (AKU) Patna, which, until then, functioned as the umbrella collegiate university for all professional institutes in the state. Two other specialised universities – one for engineering and another for veterinary sciences – have also been formed.

BUHS was also notified as the sole examining authority even for the certificate and diploma programmes. The evaluation for these programmes was earlier handled by their respective state-level professional councils.

However, the new university soon came down with the bug that has infested much of Bihar’s higher education system – inordinate delays in admission and examination, resulting in hyperextended academic sessions and courses. While wasting the time of youngsters and saddling them with financial burden, the haywire university calendar often costs them employment opportunities, and intensifies outward migration from the state.

According to the students, except for MBBS and BDS, most of the other health courses are reeling under this problem ever since they were brought under the ambit of the new university in 2023. While the first fresh undergraduate (UG) batch of the university has had only their first year evaluations conducted, the subsequent batches are yet to be even registered by the university. The 2023 BSc Nursing cohort wrote its third semester exams in January this year, but still haven’t been issued results five months later. They have signed up for the fourth year tests, but the university has so far not released the exam dates or centre information.

The diploma and certificate students, especially those pursuing the Auxiliary Nurse Midwifery (ANM) and General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) are in a much worse state. Many of them are waiting for their registrations and first year results even as their course duration has come to an end.

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The students are worried that they will miss out on government job opportunities, if they are unable to complete the course on time. “If the degree is delayed the students would be age-barred from government jobs,” said Rohit Kumar Mahanto, a nursing student at Victoria Institute Of Nursing and Paramedical Science, Patna.

BUHS result delays, supplementary exams

The delay also means a disconnect between what’s being taught in the classroom and what the students are being tested on at the moment, as despite the examination delay, the colleges continue to promote the students to the next levels. This peculiar issue, according to the students, has also resulted in increasing the failure rate in the exam.

With no provision for rechecking of papers, students are left with no choice but to write supplementary exams and shell out additional money in exam fees. A steep hike in the fees – Rs 5,850 per semester exam compared to Rs 2,850 charged yearly by AKU – has added to the students’ woes. They are also frustrated by the absence of any formal grievance redressal mechanism and an erratic varsity portal.

“There’s no system to have our complaints heard and resolved. How much will we spend from our pocket money? On the other hand, our guardians chastise against agitating. We are completely bogged down (daldal mein phans gaye hain),” said Ankit Kumar, a third-year BSc nursing student and one of the protesters at the university.

The vast majority of the students in Bihar depend on the state’s low-interest educational loan to pay for their education, and are eager to get employed to start repaying the loan. “The students are mentally disturbed, having become a financial burden on parents. Many students couldn't participate in the recruitment process,” said Bharat Bhushan, state president of the Para Medical Association of Bihar, which led the agitation at BUHS.

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BUHS University: Financial woes, staff shortage

The delayed academic session poses a financial problem for the colleges too. “The institutes’ only source of income is the tuition fees. There’s no provision for reimbursing us without having the students complete the previous year. But we continue enrolling them, otherwise their education will be disturbed. If they are sent home, they will forget everything. Hence, the institute is also burdened,” said Ramchandra Saw, director of Dhanarua Nursing and Paramedical College, Patna.

The university chalked the delay up to the complications involved in conducting as many as 126 exams for 56 different courses, administered by varied regulatory authorities. The need to hold supplementary exams before the next cycle of regular tests is also said to have contributed to the delay.

“It's a new university. We need time to carry out exams,” said Bimalesh Kumar Jha, a retired Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer, currently serving as the university registrar.

Jha said that a paucity of staff at the university is also accentuating the problem, though he points out that the varsity has a limited manpower requirement for the assessment process, which is done online and has been outsourced to an external agency. While the state has created 92 positions for BUHS, ranging from the vice chancellor (VC) to clerical staff, many of them are unfilled, forcing the university to largely rely on the staff deputed from the state health department.

The varsity also lacks a full-time VC as its current head, Bindey Kumar, is also serving as the director of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), Patna. The registrar, however, asserts that it hasn’t affected the VC’s ability to perform his duties. “We have approached the government for new staff,” he said.

Jha also blamed a legal challenge by private nursing institutions to BUHS’ status as the examining authority for the delay in ANM and GNM registrations and exams. The plea was rejected by Patna High Court in October last year, and vacated a stay on the BUHS conducting the nursing diploma tests. “Many of these institutions had admitted the students without seeking the university’s affiliation. So, we had provided them a window to get affiliation,” he said.

The registrar assured that the university will carry out the pending examinations within the next three or four months.