200 engineering students protest at Mumbai University demanding carry-on facility

Students complain that they failed because of delayed academic years due to Covid-19 pandemic impact and it will be injustice if they are forced to take a drop because of it.

For every academic year, students are Allowed To Keep Term (ATKT) with a maximum of two unclear papers. In engineering, students are not allowed admission to third year and fourth year of the course if they have any unclear paper from first and second year, respectively.

One of the protesting students, who studies at Saraswati college of engineering, said, “Our admissions were extremely delayed, due to the pandemic. Thus syllabus was compressed to complete it in time. In this haste, many of us failed in some subjects.”

Another protesting student who came from Atharva College of engineering, said, “As per the regular practice, there were attempts given to clear those pending papers in the following academic year. But question papers for re-exams considered the full syllabus instead of the compressed version, making it more difficult to clear the paper.”

Students complain that all other universities in Maharashtra have allowed such a relaxation considering the situations.

Rohit Dhale from Chatra Bharati, a students organisation which led the protest, said, “Since the university was not paying heed to the issues raised by students, we gheraoed the  Chancellor of Mumbai University on Thursday followed by the students’ protest.”

An official from Mumbai University said that the administration has received students’ demand and the authority concerned will take appropriate decision on the issue.