Over 5,000 engineering students in 174 disaffiliated colleges of 2014-15, have been detained by the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad over shortage of credits. Students are now fighting with the university to be promoted to the next class. Students claim that during the affiliation row, several classes were not held which led to shortage of credits. Disaffiliation of colleges only added to their woes.  

The university was on a spree of cracking a whip on erring engineering colleges during 2014-15. While 220 colleges retained their affiliations, the university withheld affiliation of over 174 colleges. Students admitted in these colleges prior to the affiliation row are now clueless as the colleges are dysfunctional with very little faculty members holding regular classes. “A lot of our faculty members have migrated to better opportunities. For several six credit subjects, there are no classes. How do we clear our exams if there are no classes at all,” said Sai Kiran, a BTech student of Swami Vivekanand Institute of Technology.

While the government had assured to shift students of these disaffiliated colleges to affiliated ones, nothing so far has been done in this regard. “Neither are we being shifted to other affiliated colleges, nor are we able to study properly in the existing ones. The entire affiliation process has put the future of thousands of students like me in jeopardy,” said Vinay Kumar, a BTech student of St Peters Engineering College echoing concerns of thousand others. 

Making matters worse is the absence of a regular vice-chancellor to address the students’ issue. Taking note of the situation, the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Joint Action Committee recently submitted a representation to the Hyderabad Lokayukta. “Lot of decisions are pending due to absence of VC. The in-charge VC is never available and is rarely seen on campus,” reads the representation submitted by the JNTUH JAC. 

The students have now demanded the university to relax the mandatory credit clearance from 40 to 35. Students cite that even the JNTU Kakinada in August last year had reduced the credits to 30 per cent for promotion to next class from 40 per cent citing loss of academic days during the ‘Saimaikyandhra’ agitation.

However, the university has refused to accept the demands. “The students were well aware about the credits before beginning of the academic session. The students should have approached us when the classes were not being held. Giving relaxation in the credits now will only compromise the quality of education provided by the university.”