BU blunder: Students who passed with distinction 'fail' later

In a shocker, nearly two dozen postgraduate students at Bangalore University (BU) who are three months into their masters programme, have now been told that they failed their undergraduate exams.

At least 21 students -- there could be more -- received this shock with their first semseter postgraduate exams around the corner. The university has told their respective colleges that the admission of these students cannot be approved as they failed in their undergraduate courses.

The students had cleared their undergraduate courses with distinction and the university had even given them all the necessary certificates based on which they got postgraduate seats. But the fact that they failed previously was discovered during the admission approval process.

Tense, students approached DH with all the documents/certificates issued by BU. Going by the documents, the final semester UG examination results were announced in November 2021 and they passed. Marks cards issued by BU showed that they passed. The students also have provisional degree certificates.

"Now, when we have to pay the fees for the first semester PG examination, college authorities are saying that the admission approval was rejected by the university saying that we failed in the final semester UG exams," one of the students said. "How, then, did the university issue marks cards, that too with distinction," another student asked.

While 21 students have approached the university, sources say hundreds of such errors might have occurred. Some students even suspect that such errors happen at BU deliberately.

"How can there be a technical glitch while entering details of six students from the same college? This is intentional and to make money. This is how the examination and evaluation department at the university works," one more student charged.

Meanwhile, the students alleged that the officials at the examination and evaluation department were not ready to receive their requests and nobody is there to hear their grievances.

BU Registrar (Evaluation) JT Devaraju was unavailable for comments. But Registrar (Administration) M Kotresh told DH: "We have constituted a Syndicate sub-committee to conduct an inquiry. This will be discussed in the Syndicate meeting scheduled on June 27."