Mumbai's first-yr degree students can fail in 4 papers, and still pass

More concessions are now in place for first-year college students under the Allowed To Keep Term (ATKT) scheme.

More concessions are now in place for first-year college students under the Allowed To Keep Term (ATKT) scheme.

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The Mumbai University academic council on Monday passed a resolution that first year BA and BCom students can be promoted to the second year if they fail in two papers in each of the semesters, i.e. a total of four papers in both semesters. Earlier, this concession was allowed only for two papers in the overall academic year.

The change has been introduced following the introduction of the semester grading system since last June.

For first year BSc students, the rule has been changed to allow failure in up to three papers (theory or practical) per semester or overall six papers. Earlier, they could fail in up to two papers (theory or practical) for the whole year.

"This is a major, student-friendly change," said TP Madhu Nair, dean of the commerce faculty at the university. "Now there are likely to be fewer failures."

Other courses under the commerce faculty that will be subject to the changes include the self-financing courses: Bachelor in Accounting and Finance, Bach-elor in Financial Markets, and Bachelor in Banking and Insu-rance. More than 80,000 students are expected to appear for first year exams from the commerce faculty, around 5,000 from arts faculty, and more than 20,000 from the science faculty.