Students from the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology of the University of Madras are on a sit-in protest since Tuesday, demanding that the head of department look into their grievances.
A dozen students of the department’s postgraduate programme claimed they were either failed or given low marks in the online semester exams. They had demanded rescheduling of their internship as it clashed with their exams. “We were shocked that in the research methodology paper, all eight candidates who had sought a change in schedule had been failed,” a student said.
The department did not upload the results nor display it on the notice board or send it by mail. Instead, students were told to call and find out the status. “We were at an excavation site in Vellore when the results were released. When we called, we were given our grades only and our request to provide details of internal marks were ignored,” an affected student said.
“Since we wrote the exams online, we had the option of either handing the answersheets in person or sending them by mail. We handed it over in person and also signed in a register to that effect. However, when we asked to see our transcripts we were told that they were lost,” a student said.
The students approached registrar N. Mathivanan with their complaint. They claimed that the registrar had urged the head of department to re-evaluate the papers and show the students their answer transcripts.
Since neither happened, the students decided to protest until the university responded to their demand.
University Vice-Chancellor S. Gowri said the issue had been sorted out with the students being assured that their papers would be re-evaluated. The revised results would be provided to them on Thursday, he assured them.
