VIP Students did not Benefit, says Anna University

Chennai: The Anna University on Wednesday claimed that none of the kith and kin of political leaders and VVIPs had benefited from its recent decision to relax the minimum attendance requirement norms.

A press release from the office of the registrar of the university said that the norms were relaxed only based on representations made by some students on health grounds like 'chicken pox, chikungunya, etc.

The decision to permit certain students to write the university examination waiving shortage of attendance for the even semester 2006 - 2007 was taken at the university's Syndicate meeting on April 18.

"The university sometimes receives representation from students, college managements and court orders to relax the minimum attendance requirement on certain administrative as well as medical grounds. These matters are normally placed before the Syndicate for consideration and decision," the release said.

Besides, in October 2004, as a special case, the Syndicate had permitted 37 students of the Vel Sri Rangarajan Sakunthala College of Multimedia and Vel Tech Engineering College, who had less than 75 percent attendance to write the examinations.

In January 2006, some students of the SSM College of Engineering were permitted to move to the next higher semester, though they did not have the required attendance as per the original record. Likewise, during November - December 2005, the university had permitted some students to write the end of semester examinations under a court direction.

The university's explanation, a day ahead of a debate on demand for grants to the Higher Education Department in the Assembly, has, however, perplexed some faculty members and Health Department officials. "The Health Minister hinself had started in the Assembly that only a little over 4,000 persons were affected by chicken pox across the State. Besides, this year there was no recorded case of chikungunya in Tamil Nadu," an official pointed out.

VIP Students did not Benefit, says Anna University