Kathmandu, April 21

The future of hundreds of students of the first semester pursuing Bachelors in Management at Pokhara University-affiliated private colleges hangs in the balance, as the university has decided not to register applications of students who have scored below ‘grade C’ in any subject in grades XI and XII.

Its decision has affected 344 students who were granted admission to 42 PU affiliated colleges across the country six months ago.

The Executive Council and Academic Council of PU on Friday issued a notice stating that they would not register students with low grades. However, private colleges had already admitted such students.

Students said colleges did not inform them about the university’s rule or lied to them that they would be accepted by the university prior to the examination.

Following disputes between affected students, colleges and the university, examinations of the first semester of the university have already been postponed thrice. This has affected 30,000 first semester students under the bachelor’s programme of the university, who should have taken examination on March 14, the first date slated for the examinations.

Examination dates were later fixed for March 29 and then for May 20. The next examination date is yet to be announced.

Students have demanded that they be allowed to take the examination and their respective colleges be punished for keeping them in the dark.

The university, however is rigid about its notice issued on Friday and has directed its Examination Controller Board not to register any student not fulfilling its criteria. The notice also warned that affiliation of a college will be scrapped if it repeated the mistake in the future.

However, the university and colleges have remained silent on the future of affected students who have invested money and more than six months of their time. Registrar at PU Govinda Sharma Poudel said, “The colleges should take responsibility of students and return their money.”

Organisation of Pokhara University Educational Institute of Nepal, an umbrella organisation of all PU affiliated colleges, has been demanding that the university amend its rule and get the students registered thereby enabling them to take the exam.

OPEN Chair Ram Chandra Acharya said, “The university must take responsibility or we’ll move the court.”

Nepal Student Union cadres who had earlier vandalised a couple of colleges in Kathmandu have warned that the university and colleges should enrol affected students. Navaraj Tripathi, who had led the student protest earlier, said, “The colleges should either enrol the students or be ready for protests.”