Engg students barred from exams for attendance

Hundreds of engineering students of the Indus University were barred from appearing for retest of their last semester examination on Tuesday for not having the required attendance.

While some of them staged a protest, the university management held a meeting that lasted for nearly three hours to find a solution to the issue.

An engineering student requesting anonymity said, "I will fail if I am not allowed to appear for exams. This is a way to charge extra fees from students."

Professor Bhanu Pratap Sharma, head of the Department of Architecture, Indus, said, "As per UGC, students have been asked to maintain their attendance. Some do not have sufficient attendance and hence were not allowed to sit for the exams."

Rohit Singh, who was the president of the Office of Student Affairs and graduated in July this year, said, "The university has mandated 80% attendance from last year. However, it has been lenient and even allowed those with 60% attendance to appear for exams this year. But, nearly 50% engineering students do not have the minimum required attendance and were barred from appearing for exams."

He added, "Today, I received a call from some faculty members as well as students. I will visit the university on Wednesday to sort out the matter. It is mulling over to give grace to students who had genuine issues like medical problem due to which they could not attend classes."

Singh said he was made the president of the Office of Student Affairs in 2014 after students created ruckus. "For the next two years, I acted as a bridge between the management and the students, and actually made them understand the importance of attending classes."