Kuvempu University’s decision to promote students of the Distance Education Directorate without examination has attracted severe criticism from the teaching faculty and members of the Syndicate. While the Kuvempu University Teachers’ Association (KUTA) has registered its opposition to the move with the Registrar of the university, members of the Syndicate have complained to the Governor, who is Chancellor of the university.
Citing COVID-19 pandemic, which affected the academic programme, Vice-Chancellor B.P. Veerabhadrappa on February 7 issued a notification to promote students — those who had taken admission for graduation and post-graduation courses in the academic year 2019-20 — without any examination. They were given marks considering the assignments they were asked to submit. The university declared the results of 14,141 such students. However, the results of 2,007 students had been held back for “specific reasons”. The Directorate of Distance Education of the university offers BA, B.Sc, B.Lib, MA, M.Sc, and MBA courses.
The Vice-Chancellor, in a press release, said he had powers to take such a decision as per Rule 15(5) of the Karnataka State Universities Act, 2000. “In the interest of students and to avoid incidents of suicide among them, they have been promoted without examination,” he said. Further, he said that the assignments submitted by the students were evaluated as answer scripts of regular students were evaluated.
