KOCHI: The Kerala Technological University (KTU) has refused to publish on its website the percentage of students who have passed in all subjects (university pass percentage) in the latest BTech first semester exam.
The institution-wise pass percentage has also not been published though both are understood to be available with the university. According to sources, the university pass percentage is a low 33 while not a student has passed in half a dozen colleges.
There are over 50 colleges with a pass percentage of less than 15 which are also self-financing colleges. This first semester exam is the first conducted by the fledgling university.
Five days after publishing the results on Thursday, the university has given on its website state-wise pass percentage in each subject, their aggregate percentage and their institution-wise and course-wise pass percentage. These are more than 50 percent.
A senior officer of the university, while not rejecting the figures of 33 percent, said that the university has 66.15 percent aggregate subject pass percent which is a good achievement.
He also said that nobody can expect the university to effect a drastic change in the quality of technical education overnight.
The officer also said that absolute grading was effected in the valuation while very minimal moderation was given. This is in contrast to liberal moderation given when these colleges were under the old universities which raised their pass percentage.
A college in Malabar which had 50 percent result when it was under Calicut University has now got only 15 percent. It is also seen that the percentage of pass for certain subjects like Engineering Graphics, Engineering Mechanics and Mathematics is very low as is evident from the results published on the KTU website.
However, out of the 157 engineering colleges, some of the self-financing colleges have delivered surprising results outsmarting even traditional government colleges.
According to sources, the top among these is Muthoot Institute of Technology and Science (MITS) at Varikkoli near Kolenchery in Ernakulam, which has finished third overall with 70.50 pass percentage.
The topper is College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, with 82.75 percent while in the second place is Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology, Kottayam, with a pass percentage of 70.70. The Government Engineering College, Thrissur, finished fourth with 68.55 percent followed by TKM Engineering College (68.23 percent) and MA College, Kothamangalam (66 percent).
A senior academic who has worked in several institutions in India and abroad where credit system is implemented said that in a credit-based system, no arbitrary moderation of marks can be given, but a relative grading is done for subjects where the percentage of pass is poor.
This will help all the students, including those who got high grades and low grades. This will also improve the overall pass percentage. On the other hand, moderation will help only a section of students who got low marks.
