Mangaluru: Even as the odd semester undergraduate examinations of Mangalore University will begin on October 23, those who have failed in fifth and sixth semesters will not be able to appear for the failed subjects as the university has not yet taken a decision on the issue.

The Karnataka State Higher Education Council in its August 20, 2016 meeting decided to allow the students who failed in fifth and sixth semesters in the next immediate semester examinations, irrespective of odd or even semesters. Following this, the Department of Higher Education on August 8, 2017 wrote to the universities to take steps to implement the decision of the council.

Acting on the letter by the department, the Academic Council of Mangalore University in its meeting last month (September 2017) decided to consult principals before going ahead as an experiment two years ago had resulted in delay in the announcement of results and mismatch and anomalies in results. At present, a student who has failed in the fifth and sixth semester examination could clear the respective papers only by appearing for the examination in the respective semesters after a year.

Sources in the university told  that the meeting of the principals is scheduled on Monday. Even if the principals agree to implement the decision of the Higher Education Council, it may not be possible to allow the students to appear for the failed subjects in the examinations of first, third and fifth semesters due to logistic issues. Now, the odd semester examinations have been scheduled till November 19.

Earlier, the university had decided to start the examinations on October 16. But it was postponed by a week after the government college students made a request as their colleges could not complete the syllabi due to dearth of guest teachers. Now, the university is not in a position to postpone the examinations further. The university would be able to implement the decision only in the academic year 2018-19, the sources said.They said that 75,000 students would appear for the odd semester examinations in 216 subjects (or papers) of the about 40 courses.

According to Ummappa Poojary P., president, Association of Mangalore University College Teachers (AMUCT), the university should conduct supplementary examination for the failed students in V semester (odd semester) along with VI semester (even semester) examination and also for VI semester failed students immediately after the announcement of the results, in select examination centres.