JNTU students protest in Hyderabad over grace marks allocation
A student leader alleged the original R22 regulations did not include any provision for awarding grace marks to students.
- Students under JNTU’s R22 regulation protested demanding 0.50% grace marks and subject exemption; they currently have 0.15%.
- Protesters say R25 restores a four-credit exemption and grace marks, leaving R22 cohorts disadvantaged.
- JNTU says 0.50% was a pandemic-era concession for 2018–2021 admissions; 0.15% applies to other batches.
- University formed a committee to review demands; some students may be motivated by placement shortfalls.
Hyderabad — Frustration spilled onto the campus at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), Kukatpally, on Thursday as students gathered to demand extra grace marks and subject exemptions they say are essential to passing their exams. The protest reflects a broader unease among recent cohorts about shifting academic rules and how those changes can abruptly alter a student’s academic fate — and, for some, their job prospects.
The flashpoint is a tangle of academic regulations that have evolved over several cycles. Students admitted under the R22 regulation — the so-called 2022 batch — say they have been left disadvantaged by changes introduced afterward. Grace marks and exemptions, which can tip marginal scores over passing thresholds, are governed by University Grants Commission (UGC) rules that universities periodically update. Students argue that recent revisions have reduced the buffer they once expected.
Mohammad Nehaal-ur-Rehman, a student leader with the Student Protection Forum, traced the grievance back through successive regulatory versions. He said the earlier R16 rules allowed an exemption to skip one exam, a provision removed under R18 amid concerns that some students who skipped exams were still achieving higher percentages than those who took all tests. After protests in 2023, students graduating under R18 secured some concessions, Nehaal-ur-Rehman noted.
The 2025 revision — R25 — reintroduced both a four-credit exemption and grace marks, leaving R22 students feeling stranded because their regulation does not offer those benefits. Students say that a previous protest resulted in a token allocation of 0.15 percent grace marks, but they call that insufficient. “It’s for name’s sake,” Nehaal-ur-Rehman said, arguing 0.15 percent does not help clear a single failed subject for many pupils. The protesters are now asking for 0.50 percent grace marks and subject exemptions that would align their treatment with R25 cohorts.
Dozens gathered on campus on Thursday, pressing the administration for a resolution. College management responded by promising to form a committee to examine the demands — a standard institutional step that gives students some hope but also raises the familiar tension between quick fixes and procedural deliberation. “We have constituted a committee to look into their demands and will take a decision accordingly,” said Shravan G, Public Relations Officer and Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department.
The university’s position, however, stressed context. JNTU officials said the higher 0.50 percent grace marks had been a pandemic-era special measure for students admitted between 2018 and 2021, whose education was disrupted by COVID-19. According to the university, the 0.15 percent margin has been consistently applied to batches before and after the pandemic cohort, and a recent circular clarified that the 0.15 percent figure was a reversion, not the introduction of a new benefit.
Administrators also suggested a pragmatic angle to Thursday’s protests: some students who joined the demonstration have recently received placement offers and are short by a few marks. That, the PR officer implied, may have added urgency to the demonstrations. For many students, even a fraction of a percent can separate campus placements from missed opportunities — an emotional and tangible pressure point that helps explain why a procedural academic rule can trigger public protest.
The episode highlights how policy changes, even when small in numerical terms, can have outsized effects on student lives. It also underscores a perennial challenge for universities: balancing fairness across cohorts with the need for consistent, transparent rules. For now, students are awaiting the committee’s report, hoping for a remedy that will spare their academic records and career prospects from the ripple effects of regulatory shifts.