The university has not yet specified the exact percentage of attendance that would be required to be maintained by students and said detailed guidelines will be issued shortly
In a first, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has made attendance compulsory for all regular students from January next year, a move that students termed was against the university's 'tradition'.
According to a circular issued by JNU's assistant registrar Sajjan Singh, "attendance is mandatory from the next semester for all students registered in all programmes i.e, COP, DOP, ADOP, BA, MA, MSc, MTech, MPhil, PhD etc. All schools and centers are advised to maintain an attendance record of all students".
The university has not yet specified the exact percentage of attendance that would be required to be maintained by students and said detailed guidelines will be issued shortly.
While the circular mentioned that the decision was taken during the academic council meeting held on December 1, the JNU Students' Union (JNUSU) has stated that no such issue was raised during the meeting. "During the meeting, the V-C had just arbitrarily mentioned about the formation of a committee to ensure provisions of compulsory attendance for School of Language, but it was not a part of the agenda," JNUSU president Geeta Kumari said.
"That random proposal, which the V-C had raised in passing amid opposition by the JNUSU and others, is now being termed as the decision of the AC. This is actually going to become a weapon in the hands of the administration to harass students, as is done in other universities," she said.
JNUSU vice-president Simone Zoya Khan also termed the move "irrational" and "unreasonable". "We are adults. If we choose to miss classes and mess up our future then that is on us. We are not in schools or gurukuls that we need to answer a roll call every day. This is an absolutely absurd regulation," she said, adding that it has now become routine to "misrepresent" and "manipulate" the reporting of the statutory bodies by the JNU administration.
The JNU Teachers Association (JNUTA) also backed the JNUSU, stating that the matter of regulating attendance was not discussed in the Academic Council meeting. "In a university where majority of the students are busy with their research work, compulsory attendance will not work," a JNUTA member said.
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