Colleges can introduce biometric attendance for undergraduate students or caution them regularly about their attendance status so that they are not barred from taking semester exams, Calcutta University has said.

The choice-based credit system makes it mandatory for students to have a minimum of 60 per cent attendance to take semester exams. Attendance carries 10 marks as well.

The university on Saturday reminded colleges of the rule and said no student can take the semester exams if they fall short on the attendance cut-off, Dipak Kar, university pro-vice-chancellor, academic affairs, told Metro.

University officials conveyed the suggestions to college heads at an interactive session with them to review the implementation of the choice-based credit system in BA, BSc and BCom.

The session was held on the university’s Rajabazar science college campus on Saturday.

At the session, several college heads raised the matter of some students skipping classes. Many urged the university to have a uniform rule or “some common punitive measures” against such students to ensure they don’t skip classes and fall short on the attendance cut-off.

Some principals wanted to know if the university could ask the higher education department to prepare a uniform rule for colleges on this matter.

Kar said it has been made clear to college heads that they would have to sort out the attendance problem themselves.

“Colleges will have to find their own methods to ensure every student has the mandatory minimum 60 per cent attendance. The university can’t interfere in this matter. The onus is on the college administration,” Kar said.

“But we suggested to them they could go for a biometric system to monitor students’ attendance. Students can be alerted about their attendance status every fortnight or once a month so that they can make up for any shortfall. But colleges will have to take the final call.”

Students with 60 to 74 per cent attendance in a semester get six out of 10 marks and those with 75 to 90 per cent, eight.

A full 10 is awarded to those who have 90 per cent or more attendance.

Students have claimed they were unaware about the mandatory attendance, the consequences of having low attendance and the marking scheme.

Several colleges were rocked by students’ protests before the start of the first semester exams in January when authorities denied them permission because of low attendance.

Many of the protesting students had complained to the university they were unaware of the attendance rules in the choice-based credit system.

The first semester BA and BSc exams were held in January and the results declared last month.

Result review

Students studying in private engineering institutions can apply for post-publication scrutiny and review of the first, third, fifth, seventh and ninth semester results from March 18.

The online forms will be available on Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University’s website makautexam.net from Monday.

The last date for submission of the application forms is March 25.