KOCHI: Things are a mess at the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, also known as Kerala Technical University (KTU). Presently, the university formed in 2014 is facing a banner of protest raised by the BTech students belonging to 2022-26 and 2023-27 batches studying various engineering colleges affiliated with it due to the university’s year-back policy.
The situation is such that a majority of the students belonging to these two batches might end up losing a year. The students blame it on the lackadaisical attitude of the university administration. The students raised various accusations against the beleaguered university that is yet to have a campus of its own.
Speaking to TNIE, Mehjabeen Nishad, a third-year BTech student of Indira Gandhi Institute of Engineering and Technology at Kothamangalam, said, “The latest decision of the university to introduce the year-back system came in as a bolt from the blue. Of course, the system was introduced along with the syllabus revision in 2019. But it was never implemented in 2019 and 2020 due to Covid or in the corresponding years. However, recently, the university issued a notification, one that is yet to reach the colleges, directing the institutions to implement the system.”
As per the students, the colleges have all conducted the examinations and the results are yet to come out. “As per the said notification, students who do not have a minimum of 21 credits in Semester 1 and 2 can’t attend Semester 5 classes. Similarly, to be able to register for Semester 7 classes, a student needs to have 47 credits from Semester 1 to 4.
However, we didn’t get the information in time and with just two-and-a-half months of class time, out of which many days get lost due to college-related activities and holidays plus the internals and assignments, the students haven’t been able to prepare properly for the examinations,” she said.
According to Subin Saji, the enforcement of the year-back policy is unfair and detrimental to the academic and mental well-being of students. “The students of 2022-26 and 2023-27 batches are the ones who completed Plus-I and Plus-II during the peak of the Covid pandemic through online classes. As a result, they entered college without a strong academic foundation.
The initial semesters of their BTech courses were also conducted online, making it difficult to fully grasp many of the subjects.” “It is to be noted that we are the final batch of the 2019 scheme. Many students are now facing the possibility of having to shift to the new academic scheme which came into force in 2024. This is highly disruptive and impractical as we are already midway through our course,” said Farhan, another BTech student.
The students also accused the university of not giving them prior warning regarding the implementation of this policy. “As a result, many colleges failed to inform their students in time, depriving them of the opportunity to improve their performance,” Mehjabeen said.
Meanwhile, the university gave a reprieve to the students by saying that they could sit in S5 and S7 classes until the results of the supplementary examinations were out. In a communique to the colleges, the dean of academics Dr Vinu Thomas said, “Currently the students who are short of the required credits for the registration to S5 and S7 may be provisionally permitted to attend the classes, subject to the declaration of results of the supplementary examinations pertaining to S1 and S4.”
The contentious rule
The system was introduced along with the syllabus revision in 2019. But it was never implemented in 2019 and 2020 due to Covid
As per the said notification, students who do not have a minimum of 21 credits in Semester 1 and 2 can’t attend Semester 5 classes
Similarly, to be able to register for Semester 7 classes, a student needs to have 47 credits from Semester 1 to 4