After Multiple Protests Pune University Announces 'Carry Forward' Policy Allowing Students With Backlogs To Progress (Video)

Following multiple protests staged for the past one and a half months, a ‘carry forward’ policy was announced by the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) on Thursday for the 2025-26 academic year. It will allow students with backlogs to progress to the next academic year. National Students Union of India (NSUI) was at the forefront of the protests staged on SPPU campus. 

Deputy Registrar Professor S. D. Davkhar issued the notification. The letter mentions that the eligibility will be decided based on the winter 2025-26 results, not the summer 2024-25 results. Students must submit an undertaking and complete all academic requirements like regular students. The university clarified that if students fail to clear pending subjects by winter 2025-26, their provisional admission will be cancelled as per existing rules.

Under this arrangement, students who failed in the winter 2024 or summer 2025 exams will be eligible for admission to the 5th semester (3rd year) if they have first-year backlogs, to the 7th semester (4th year) if they have second-year backlogs, and to the 9th semester (5th year) if they have third-year backlogs.

A formal undertaking will have to be submitted by the students to their respective colleges that says they accept full responsibility for completing academic requirements like internal assessments, attendance, field visits. coursework, and practicals. 

NSUI in a statement, said, “Since July 8, Students and the Congress’s student wing had been fighting for their rightful demands. Today, the struggle has finally succeeded. Over the past one and a half months of continuous efforts, we had staged two protests raising our demand. Today, during the third protest, as we stood firm and confronted the administration, they immediately agreed to all our demands.” 

Tensions flared at the SPPU campus on Thursday, as a group of students attempted to climb the main gate and storm into the Vice-Chancellor’s cabin in protest. The students' agitation was staged to demand another opportunity to appear for their examinations, citing alleged malpractice in the paper-checking process. 

Students highlighted irregularities being committed during the evaluation of answer sheets and demanded that they either re-check their papers or give a fresh chance to reappear for the exam. 

 A similar protest had been held at Pune University about a month ago. However, the students alleged that the Vice-Chancellor had taken no follow-up action on their demands, forcing them to resume their agitation.

Speaking to Free Press Journal, Akshay Jain from NSUI, said, “As per the rules, only a small percentage of the total marks can be given as grace. For a 50-mark paper, that means a maximum of 5 marks. But in one case, a student was given 11 extra marks as grace. Students claim that the exam department is supposed to give only up to 10 percent of the total marks as grace, yet a student with just 9 marks was directly given 20 marks, which is 11 more than the allowed limit. This has created a sense of unfairness among other students.”

“This was our third protest. Our fight for students’ rights has been going on for more than a month and we have finally succeeded. The decision to grant special concessions to all courses in the science stream is not just a victory for us, the Youth Congress,but for every student,” Jain added.