JNU students boycott exams in protest, admin to remove students without 'academic requirement' from roll

As the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University continue their protest and complete lockdown of the university, post-graduate students of the School of Arts and Aesthetics and the entire School of Languages have are boycotting their exams which are scheduled from December 12. The student representatives who had met the Higher Education Secretary R Subhramanyam last week, had asked him to speak to the JNU administration to postpone the exams.

It is a do-or-die situation now, said Apeksha Priyadarshini, a member of students' organisation BASO and a councillor of the current JNU Students' Union. "Students are boycotting exams and synopsis presentations just so that students who come from marginalised backgrounds don't have to drop out from next semester. This is how strongly the JNU community feels for social justice. And yet this administration is shamelessly using their coterie of right-wing teachers to pressurise and threaten students in an underhanded manner," she said. "Our demands are simple but resolute — complete rollback of IHA Manual and reconvening of IHA meeting with JNUSU representatives," she reiterated.

Meanwhile, the JNU administration is removing students from the rolls if they do not meet the academic requirements for the semester exams. The JNU registrar has asked the faculty to conduct their lectures to ensure that students fulfil the requirements to write the end semester exams on December 12. "All the school buildings are open. All the faculty members are requested to conduct their lectures and other academic activities. It is important to ensure that students fulfil all their academic requirements to be eligible to write the end semester exams which are scheduled to start on December 12, 2019", the administration said in a statement.

In another notice to the faculty and students, the administration has pointed out that with each day of disruption, the prospects of maintaining the minimum teaching days under UGC rule is becoming a grim task. It has emphasised that only a group of students are protesting but thousands of students are suffering on account of this.

"You are aware that due to the ongoing agitation by a group of students, thousands of students who wish to resume their academic activities are adversely affected. The JNU administration has appealed to the agitating students time and again to return to their classes and resume their academic works. With each passing day, the prospects of maintaining the minimum teaching days in a semester as per the UGC Rule is getting grimmer", it said.

All Deans, Chairpersons and faculty members have been asked to share information with the students and apprise them of the academic rules of the University so that their academic interests can be protected. The last date for submission of MPhil dissertation and PhD thesis in the schools and forwarding the same to the Evaluation Branch is December 31 for the monsoon semester.

The JNU administration has laid out rules for minimum scores, failing which the names of students will automatically be struck off the rolls across courses. It is said that academic ordinance relating to the Award of the Master of Philosophy Degree (Clause 7), stipulates that students need to clear at least 50% of the total courses and in case they fail to clear any of these courses (vide Clause 8) or fail to secure a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 5 on completion of course work at the end of second semester their name will be automatically removed from the roll list of the University.

Similarly, students pursuing their BA (Hons.) programme need to clear the sessional examinations and maintain a minimum of CGPA as specified in Clause 9 of the ordinance relating to the award of BA (Hons.), BA (PASS) degrees failing which their name will be removed from the JNU roll list vide the clause 11.

Students who fail to meet the norms and requirements under Clause 9 and 11 of the ordinances relating to the award of MA, MSc, degrees will be dropped from the JNU roll list. According to the university's academic rules, the sessional examinations need to be conducted as per the approved academic calendar before the end semester examinations, which is from December 12 until December 20. Keeping in view the present scenario, all those Centres where the third sessional exams have not been conducted yet, the concerned Deans and Chairpersons are requested to ensure that the sessional exam schedules are announced at the earliest and conducted by the concerned teachers as per the schedule, the administration said.

(With inputs from IANS)