Bangalore University sees higher pass percentage this time, Says VC Venugopal

BENGALURU: Amid worries of reach and effectiveness of online classes during the pandemic, Bangalore University (BU) undergraduate results have improved substantially in arts and commerce streams.
The exams for final-year students were held in the midst of the raging pandemic during September and October. This is the last batch of undergraduate students of undivided BU, which had over 700 affiliate colleges in five districts. The results were announced over the past week.

According to details shared by the varsity, BCom, which has the largest number of students, saw a pass percentage of 82.4%, a 10% jump from last year’s 72.5%. While 40,950 students took the exams this year, 37,000 appeared in 2019.
In bachelor of business administration (BBA), the figure witnessed a 6% jump from 2019 to touch 80% this time. In BA, the pass percentage is around 88%, an increase from 84% last year.
On the other hand, BSc and BCA results dipped. In BSc, the fall is around 7 percentage points, with 64% students clearing the exam. In BCA, the decline is marginal. Two students couldn’t clear bachelor of vocational education (B Voc), while all had passed last year.

Interestingly, more students took the exams this year in all streams except arts. “This proves online classes have been effective and can be considered as a medium to teach in the coming days too. Students had more time to study as they stayed at home and could focus better. There were concerns of rural-urban divide, connectivity and low bandwidth. Yet, we overcame all the challenges and students performed well. In BCom, this could be one of the best results the university has had in recent years,” said BU vice-chancellor KR Venugopal.

However, the VC denied that any such instructions on valuation were given to lecturers. “It’s all about students’ efforts. They were serious about exams and classes. The digital evaluation process also brought in transparency,” he said. “Science is generally tough. There could be other reasons why the results dipped for science and need to be looked into,” he added.

The pass percentage in 2019 is much lower when all the even-semester students are considered. For instance, for BCom, it was only 56%. “That’s because first and second-year students are not as serious as final-year students. It’s mostly the first and second-year students who pull down the pass percentage,” said the VC.