Campus Talk: After first-year students, now final-year engineering students of Mumbai University demand ‘carry-on’ facility

Golden batch students are those who have more than permitted number of backlog papers while transitioning from the third year to the fourth year (the final year) of engineering degree course.

According to these students, even as results are expected to be announced within 45 days of the examination, some results, including those of the Allowed To Keep Term (ATKT) papers, took almost 150 days to be declared, causing confusion and chaos.

One of the students said, “I have already started my final year. The ATKT result was declared six months after the academic year began. The college is now not allowing me to appear for the fourth-year examination due to the backlog of papers.”

Another student said, “Close to 40 per cent of the final year students are forced to sit at home due to this.”

Stating that around 2,500 students have gotten in touch with them with this issue, Sachin Pawar from Yuva Sena, the youth wing of Shiv Sena, said, “These students are already troubled as they got admissions during the Covid-19 pandemic. Apart from an impact on academics, they had to transition from MCQ papers to a regular subjective exam post Covid, leading to considerable failures. They deserve one chance as a special measure so that they do not miss out on an entire academic year.”

Pawar pointed out that the Savitribai Phule Pune University and the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Solapur University have already approved such a facility. Yuva Sena has written a letter to Dr Prasad Karande, Director, Board of Examinations and Evaluations at the Mumbai University, with the students’ demands.

Meanwhile, Dr Karande was unavailable for a comment.

Earlier this year in September, first year students had demanded a similar consideration. The Indian Express’s Campus Talk had reported about their demand. Professors from engineering colleges too had written to Mumbai University in favour of first-year students who complained of a backlog of papers as they struggled to bring the academic year back on track post Covid.

What is the ‘carry-on’ facility demand?

Carry-on facility is essentially Allowed-To-Keep-Term (ATKT) for students in undergraduate courses which allows them to proceed to the next academic year with un-cleared papers.

Generally, a maximum of two such backlog papers are allowed. Additionally, students entering in the fourth year of engineering cannot have any backlog of papers from the first year of the course. But a considerable number of students do have such a backlog due to which they will have to miss an entire academic year. With a special measure of ‘carry-on’ facility, this clause can be relaxed.