CHENNAI: Engineering students who have arrears and had applied for re-exam in April/May 2020, have not passed and will have to write the exams to graduate, said Anil Sahasrabuddhe, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) Chairman.
The issue came to light, after a strongly-worded email, written by Sahasrabuddhe to Anna University Vice-Chancellor (VC) MK Surappa, threatening to strip Anna University's approval, was leaked on social media.
Sahasrabuddhe in his mail remarked that he found it surprising that final year students, who had failed in various courses in the earlier semesters, are being passed without conducting examinations. "This is not acceptable to award marks without conducting any examination and graduating the students. Such students will not be recognised by industry or by other universities for higher education," he said in the mail.
Sahasrabuddhe further asserted that, "AICTE will be constrained to withdraw the approval of Anna University."
In a telephonic conversation with The New Indian Express on Tuesday morning, Sahasrabuddhe confirmed sending the mail to Surappa and added that he had also discussed the issue with state Chief Secretary K Shanmugham. "She also said that there is some misunderstanding...we are not waiving off exams for the failed students. It is somehow a wrong interpretation by people based on the circular which was issued which was very careful that (said) all AICTE UGC guidelines shall be followed," he elaborated.
He further said that council will not be withdrawing the varsity's approval if arrear exams shall be held. "How can someone with backlogs be passed?" he wondered.
AICTE has not issued any official letter, it was an email, MK Surappa clarified to TNIE. When asked if Anna University issued any notification that waived off any arrear exam, Surappa said, "We have not issued any circular like that to students." He did not want to comment further on the issue.
On July 23, the government announced the cancellation of semester exams for all but final year students. On August 26, CM Edappadi K Palaniswami further directed the Higher Education Department to issue detailed guidelines on the cancellation of the April-May 2020 semester exams for all college students, barring those in their final year.