Summary of the Discussion held between Student Representatives and the Academic Staff of the Faculty of Engineering today (Tuesday 10th July 2018) at the Faculty Board Room
Summary of the views expressed by the academic staff:
1. The Faculty has a responsibility to ensure the quality of the undergraduate programme. Academic staff feels that it is part of their duty to make sure that students have acquired the necessary level of knowledge and skills in each of the course module, as per the documented criteria. Accordingly, “Following the course satisfactorily” is a requirement that needs to be fulfilled for the accreditation of the degree program.
2. However, the academic staff was in general agreement that the students who did not satisfy the attendance requirement should be given an opportunity to present their justifications for not satisfying attendance requirements.
3. The view of the academic staff is that this opportunity is to be open to all the students in the list of disqualified students.
4. As such, each student has to appeal individually giving reasons for their low attendance. The Faculty Board of Engineering will consider each case separately and take appropriate actions.
5. It is strongly felt that detailed discussion on specific matters that had led to the low attendance was not practically possible at this meeting due to the absence of the affected students.
6. With regard to the proposal made by the ESU to exempt a specific set of students unconditionally, the staff members strongly and unanimously suggested that there is no provision to accommodate such a request. Further, the justification made by the ESU for such a consideration was found to be neither uniform nor consistent. As a better and more acceptable mechanism for all the affected students, the staff members felt that all the affected students should be given the opportunity for re-consideration on a case by case basis.
7. The student representatives were requested to help solve this situation by assisting the Faculty in getting individual appeals from the affected students.
8. ESU agreed to inform the students about the above proposals and report to the Faculty immediately.
9. Response sent by the ESU in the afternoon of 10th July is attached for your information.
Dean / Engineering
10th July 2018