OU nixes demand to do away with detention in engineering studies

​Hyderabad: Osmania University said that it would not give any further relaxation in the number of credits to be earned by the engineering students for onward promotion to the next academic year. Turning down the requests made to scrap the detention system, the university dismissed the misinformation campaign against the system followed by the University College of Engineering.

University Vice-Chancellor Prof S Ramachandram here on Friday said that the University received requests and representations from the students of engineering colleges affiliated to it to do away with the detention system. Similar requests have also been received earlier too.

After consideration the issue sympathetically, the university had already relaxed the criteria to a maximum extent by decreasing the number of credits for onward promotion to the next year. Prof Ramachandram said that a student is detained only when he fails to clear more than 50 per cent of total credits in both the semesters during the current academic year. Also, a relaxation of nine credits was given last year on the request of the students.
The same will continue during the current years also, he added.

He said, “A student might have backlogs in any of the preceding years. This comes to 12 subjects of three credits each. If such a candidate is promoted, the candidate has to undergo the study of eight subjects making a total of 20 subjects to be cleared which makes the job of the student much more difficult.” Any further relaxation would not only harm the students but also the university which had been placed on the top ten universities, he added.

Besides, the placements record which is showing an upward swing among the top companies would be hit, in turn, this will have a negative impact on the future prospects of the students in getting opportunities in the best industries.

Rejecting the allegations that there have been large-scale detentions during the last academic year under Choice Based Credit system, the university said that out of total 18,947 students who appeared only 8.4 per cent were detained. “The detention percentages were, two per cent out of 5,449, 13 per cent out of 4,466 in the second year, eight per cent out of 9,032 in the final years,” the university said. Furthermore most of the students who have been detained have got admitted into affiliated colleges under Management quota.

The Vice Chancellor said that the percentage of detentions is very low and in fact reflects the robust evaluation practices of the university. Further, the university policy is heavily tilted in favour of the students. However, Ramachandram said that Mathematics, as a subject in all engineering branches, is the cornerstone and pointed out that it would be difficult to excel in any branch of engineering if student fails to qualify in the Mathematics subject.

Besides, advising the college management to be more discreet in admitting students and take into consideration their aptitude for engineering education, Ramachandram also asked them to conduct remedial classes on spotting weaknesses among the students. Expressing his displeasure at parents supporting the students in their protests, the Vice Chancellor blamed it on lack of awareness on the merits. He has requested the parents to explain and counsel their children on this issue.