TN universities to migrate to new grading system

Updated on: Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Chennai: All arts and science universities in Tamil Nadu are set to migrate to the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) system of evaluating students' performance in the examinations and do away with the existing practice of awarding marks including aggregate scores in degree certificates.

The controller of examinations of all state universities, which offer arts, science and commerce courses, met at the office of the Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education (TANSCHE) in Chennai recently and agreed to implement the CGPA system from the current academic year itself. To start with, the current first year undergraduate and postgraduate students will be covered under the new pattern.

The CGPA system is in vogue in several universities abroad and leading institutions in the country including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

Earlier last year the TANSCHE had mooted a mark normalisation system with grades under which the individual score of a student will be normalised (adjusted) based on a mid-point average calculation after taking into account the highest and lowest marks scored in a paper.

"Stakeholders including college principals and teachers had opposed the system arguing that the normalisation could work to the disadvantage of some students under extreme circumstances if they scored border marks. Therefore that proposal has been shelved and instead we have decided to adopt the CGPA system which has found favour with everyone," a senior official in the higher education department told The Times of India.

Under this system two types of grades will be awarded to the students one a Grade Point Average (GPA), which will be computed in every semester examination and another a CGPA at the end of the three-year undergraduate and two-year postgraduate course.

"The GPA will be computed by dividing the sum of the multiplication of grade points by the credits of the courses with the sum of the credits of the courses in a semester, whereas the CGPA will be awarded on the basis of the grades and credits earned for the entire course," the official added.

Students who pass in a subject/paper in the first appearance in all semester examinations alone will qualify for the First Class-Exemplary' and First Class With Distinction' grades.

TN universities to migrate to new grading system

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