Chennai: Withdraw 2017 regulations, says engineering students

Chennai: After witnessing a big drop in pass percentage in third-semester results, the engineering students now plan to hold a major protest across the state on Friday demanding withdrawal of 2017 regulations which introduced several restrictions including appearing for arrears exam.

Anna University has declared the November-December 2018 exam results on Monday. According to the affiliated colleges, the results of the third semester are down by 15% compared to the previous semester.

“Of 55 students in our college, only two cleared all the subjects in November 2018 exams. In the previous semester, 22 students cleared all subjects. Half of our class have arrears in more than five subjects,” a student from Madurai zone said.

“If we pursue our engineering course in 2017 regulations, we may not able to get our degrees,” he added.

Replacing arrears system with the reappearance registration system, Anna University had introduced the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) to the affiliated colleges in the previous academic year (2017-18).

As per 2017 regulations, the students who fail in theory course can only reappear along with regular students when that course is offered next time. It means if a student could not clear a course in an odd semester, he or she can only reappear for the exam when the course is offered next year.

Further, the total number of credits that a student is allowed to register per semester cannot exceed 36. It would limit their number of arrears appearance to only two or three subjects along with the regular subjects.

“With the cap in the maximum number of credits, if we have more than three arrears in one semester we may not able to clear it and finish our degrees. We are in danger of accumulating our arrears,” another student said.

Another student attributed the poor results to the strict evaluation of answer scripts.

“In many colleges, students with 8 CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) also could not clear the exams this year. The students plan to protest peacefully at Anna University in Chennai and inside their college campuses. Our association supports this protest,” said K.M. Karthik, president of Private Educational Institutions Employees Association.

The students are also planning to meet Anna University authorities demanding the withdrawal of the 2017 regulations.

When enquired, a principal from the city-based engineering college accepted that the exam results dropped in the November 2018 exams.

“We had more than 70% results in the previous semester exams. But, in this semester, our overall results have dropped to less than 60%,” he said. A majority of the third-semester students could not clear the exams, he added.

After the revaluation scam, Anna University has brought stringent measures to prevent any malpractices during an evaluation and it seems to have affected the results of the affiliated engineering colleges.