Students of VTU plan protest against CBCS on August 18

Students of colleges affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) will hold a statewide protest on August 18 to raise their concerns about the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) and the effect it has on their academics. The CBCS provides choice for students to select from the prescribed courses.

Over the past few months, students have held several such protests about the delay in announcement of results, improper schedules of examinations and others.

Students say the university failed to anticipate the consequences of introducing CBCS. “The university introduced the CBCS system in the 2015-16 academic year for the first year batch. The senior batches were following the previous system. When non-CBCS second year students lost a year after failing in some subjects, they had to attend the third year with their junior batch which was following CBCS. But their modules, exam pattern, assessment and marks cards are completely different,” one student said.

Several students approached the high court and a temporary solution for this problem was found. However, students say that now the problem will crop up again with the third year batch.

“If students fail to clear the required number of subjects in the third year, they will again lose a year. They will have to attend the fourth year classes along with their juniors following CBCS when they have completed the previous years in the old system,” the students said.

The university has proposed that separate classes can be conducted for these students, following the old system. However, students fear that private colleges will not provide separate lab sessions and classes for them.

With support from the All India Democratic Students' Organisation (AIDSO), the students are demanding that those in the old system should not be made to lose a year. They should instead be allowed to take the backlog examinations at the end of the semester. They are also demanding that students in the new system should be given the opportunity to write supplementary exams as their revaluation results were released late.