A section of the students of the city’s Presidency University have started an indefinite hunger strike to protest against the University’s decision to debar students from appearing in examinations due to low attendance.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines make it mandatory for students to have 75 per cent attendance to appear for examinations, a directive which the University authorities decided to implement from the present semester. Students claimed that they were not informed about the regulation before its implemention. The semester-end examinations are due to begin from November 23.
“We were informed about the attendance regulation on the day we went to collect our admit cards on Friday. Initially, 1,238 students across undergraduate and postgraduate departments were debarred from appearing for examinations. The number was later reduced to 180 students with attendance less than 50 per cent, following a dialogue with the Vice Chancellor [Anuradha Lohia],” vice president of the student council Amardip Singh told The Hindu .
Protesting against the ‘sudden’ decision of the University, 20 students started a hunger strike from Saturday to demand that the directive be withdrawn.
Alleging that there were discrepancies in the attendance calculation system, Mr. Singh said many of the department heads had refused to show the students their attendance registers.
Register missing “Many attendance registers are missing. Teachers have often taken the attendance on chits of paper. The teacher-to-student ratio is skewed and there is no proper credit system, as per the UGC guidelines. If UGC norms are to be maintained, it should be done so in entirety,” Mr. Singh said.
Students had gheraoed Ms. Lohia on Friday to convince her into withdrawing the norm.
Refuting the students’ claim, Ms. Lohia said she had made the attendance rules clear at the fresher’s welcome in July and had been reminding them throughout the semester.
