197 Gujarat tech university students punished for unfair practices

After hearing cases of around 197 students caught for malpractices during exams, the Unfair Means (UFM) committee announced punishments for students after approval from the Gujarat Technological University (GTU) vice-chancellor Dr Akshai Aggarwal. The harshest punishment was meted out to 71 students who were barred from attending academic sessions and appearing for the exam for two semesters.

This means, these students will have to wait for three semesters as the punishment includes cancellation of the current semester exam and bar on attending two semesters. Of the total, the GTU has punished 91 students from one semester study, cancellation of one of the 17 subjects. Twelve students have been announced innocent by the UFM committee.

According to officials at the GTU, of the total, around 171 students caught for UFM were from diploma courses, 18 from BE, four from B Pharm and four from MBA. The committee had called students for personal interaction two weeks back to decide the course of action.

Registrar at the GTU, GP Vadodaria said that the number of cheating cases has gone down in comparison to the previous semester.

He said, in the last semester- there were around 428 cheating cases. "The number of students has gone up by one lakh while the cheating cases have gone down," he said.