Nine students were suspended by the Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University’s School of Excellence in Law (SOEL) in Chennai, for participating in a protest against mass failure in the semester examinations on August 7. The protesting students said that several students failed different subjects in the examinations allegedly due to unfair evaluation. They also raised grievances such as lack of answer keys, high re-evaluation costs, improper question paper format, and delayed results. 

According to the students, the protest started at around 2 pm on August 7 and concluded by 3 am the next day. “Initially, the management refused to listen, prompting us to move to the college entrance for visibility. The Dean claimed he had no authority to address the issue, so we requested the Vice-Chancellor (V-C) and Controller of Examinations to respond. But all of them ignored us,” they said. 

A student who requested anonymity told TNM that the University collects Rs 400 per paper for re-evaluation and Rs 500 for xerox copy of the answer sheets. Getting the copy of the answer sheet through a Right to Information (RTI) application would cost them less, the students said. 

In a letter to the V-C, the Controller of Examinations, and the Dean, the students stressed on how the non-existence of relative grading puts them at the risk of losing out on opportunities compared to students in private colleges. 

“The belief that no perfect answer exists – and therefore no full marks should be awarded – affects the overall marks a student can achieve and influences evaluators to grade relatively, viewing a 12-mark question as a 10-mark one. Due to the systematic deduction of marks, the highest scores rarely exceed 55, making it nearly impossible for a student to achieve more than 85% even with full marks in internals,” the letter stated. They also pointed out that students from private law colleges regularly score 85-95% and hold an advantage in Masters admissions and job opportunities.  

The letter also said that many students who took admission in the college with 90% marks in school, were struggling to pass the semester examinations. “This [reflects] not the lack of intellectual ability of students but the inconsistent evaluation of the University, which invites well-performed students and sends out students with poor results and self-doubt,” the letter added.

The students have demanded that the management provide guidelines for answering questions and directions with regards to evaluation. “It becomes challenging for us to assess our performance or determine whether there is potential for score improvement in the absence of clear evaluation criteria,” they said. 

They have also sought a detailed re-evaluation sheet on the quality of the student's answers and reasons why marks were deducted. As of now, the results only indicate whether the marks have changed or remained the same, without offering any additional information. 

They have requested that re-evaluation should be made available to all students, regardless of their scores (whether pass or fail) according to the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines. “Sub-clause 5 of Clause 2 of the UGC Guidelines for Student Entitlement states that students are entitled to fair provisions for timely re-checking or re-evaluation of theiranswer scripts, as well as for the redressal of any grievances related to the evaluation process,” the letter read.

Requesting blueprints for the question papers, the students said that their request was warranted by the uncertainties surrounding the mark distribution for each module. “It is essential for both students and teachers to prioritise certain modules that hold greater significance than others. There have been instances where students have expressed disappointment with the weightage assigned to each module, and even teachers have been taken aback by these distributions,” they added.

Further, they also asked the management to consider reduction in re-evaluation fees and the retrieval of answer sheets. “This financial burden restricts many students from accessing

their own answer sheets, thereby infringing upon their right to review and contest their examination results. Additionally, when students request a copy of their answer sheets, it is often provided with considerable delays,” they said. 

The students said that the resolution of the issue is crucial for maintaining the integrity of the examination process and ensuring a fair academic environment for all students.