Bowing to pressure from agitating students, A. P. Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU) on Wednesday decided to scale back the norms for the controversial ‘year out’ system for admission to higher semesters of the B.Tech course.
The decisions were taken at a meeting between varsity officials and student representatives chaired by Education Minister C. Ravindranath here on Wednesday.
Currently, candidates should have 26 credits for semesters 1 and 2 in order to move from semester three to four. Now it has been decided that candidates can move freely to semester 4 and that only for promotion to semester 5 would the 26-credit rule be applied.
Similarly, the provision that those moving from semester 5 to 6 should have 71 credits has also been modified. It was agreed that students could move freely from semester 5 to 6. For moving to semester 7 students should have scored 52 credits.
It was also decided at the meeting that the ‘year out’ system would be frozen for six months.
The KTU Vice Chancellor would hold monthly talks with student representatives to address various grievances. The Education Minister would take the initiative to constitute various statutory bodies including a Board of Studies in the varsity. A committee would be set up to study and report on the problems of examinations now faced by the varsity. The varsity would immediately set up an IT Cell which would oversee the conduct of examinations. A major complaint of the students had been that the varsity was outsourcing the conduct of examinations to a Technopark-based private company.
It was also decided that the varsity would organise State-level arts and culture events on the lines of the State School Arts Festival. It is understood that the SFI and the ABVP signalled their approval of these decisions.
“The KSU representatives disagreed with the decisions taken and announced that they would continue with their agitation against the system,” an official who took part in the talks said here. The newly formed KTU Students Union also decided to press ahead with their agitation for the withdrawal of the system. The union’s demand is that either the system be fully done away with or that it is frozen for three batches.
Union coordinator Aparna Rajeevan told The Hindu that the KTU and the Minister should have spoken to students agitating on the streets and not to leaders of student organisations.
“None of our demands were met. The KTU could not give us a timetable for the reforms we demanded. Even the decision to reduce the credit for moving to semester 7 from 71 to 52 was announced after we left the conference hall. We will continue with our agitation,” she added.
