Engineering students in a fix over arrear exams
Anna University’s decision to disallow students from 2010 batch to take arrears from this year has left several students high and dry.
The university had decided to implement the University Grants Commission norm that the candidates should complete their degree within seven years of joining the course in the case of engineering, and eight years for architecture students. The university officials said the students with arrears forced it to extend the number of days of exam schedule.
Very few students
In some cases, there were just a handful of students for whom the university had to prepare question papers relevant to the syllabi followed at that time. The university revises its syllabi (regulations) every four years.
Recently, the university released the timetable for November/ December semester, which did not contain details of exams for students up to 2010 batch.
Nagendra, who joined Valliammai College of Engineering in 2010, said he had to forgo a year as he had been too ill. “I should have passed in 2014 but was detained for a year for want of attendance and finished the course in 2015. I have five papers and I can finish it this semester,” he said.
An alumnus of Agni College of Technology, who joined in 2008, had 25 arrears when his class graduated in 2012. “I had a job until last year. I used to take leave from work before exams. It was after my mother’s death in 2014 that I realised the need to complete the degree. I finished 15 papers last year. Now I have only two papers,” he says.
N. Ashok of Theni, who studied in Madha Engineering College in Chennai, said as a Tamil-medium student he had found the subjects difficult.
University officials said the decision had been taken after several rounds of meeting by the Syndicate. “We are only implementing the UGC norm,” said Registrar S. Ganesan. The Controller of Examination, G.V. Uma, said there might be several hundreds of such candidates since 2000, when the university became an affiliating body.
The students proposed to meet Higher Education Secretary on Monday to give them another chance.
No comments:
Post a Comment