Karachi University students protest against a Grade Point Average system
Karachi:Students of BS session 2007 protested on Saturday against the Karachi University (KU) administration and staged a sit-in against the Semester Cell for trying to implement a Grade Point Average (GPA) system that was not meant for them.
KU Registrar Prof. Rais Alvi met the students and listened to their point of view. The students told Prof. Alvi that according to the semester rules they were not to appear in mid term tests and their pass marks was 40 not 50 out of 100.
Prof. Alvi asked the students to bring the semester rule book to him and the students representatives showed the rules that clearly favoured their point of view. The registrar promised to plead their case with the Vice-Chancellor.
The examination rule says:The examinations held at the end of the semester after competition of a course shall be known as the Terminal Examinations. The Terminal Examinations will be held for 80+20 (where practical work is involved) as in Science Faculty and of 100 marks where no practical is involved as English or Urdu.
It explains:The assessment of students performance will be made out of 100 marks for a course in general. A minimum of 40 marks are required to pass the examination.
We went to the Deans and they sent us to the Registrar. It is a purely academic matter and under the domain of the Deans but they are shrinking away from their responsibility, said one enraged student from the Applied Chemistry department.
The News spoke to Prof. Alvi and he accepted that the students were right and he will take their case up with the Vice-Chancellor.
I am convinced that they are right and they should not be subjected to new rules, he said.
A high-ranking official confided that he had corrected the latest notification that came from the Deans Committee, three times.Unfortunately the final version that appeared in the newspapers was a mess and had no meaning at all. The use of language was pathetic, he said.
