Pune: After multiple protests by students who failed to achieve the minimum eligibility set for promotion to higher classes, demanding a “carry forward” facility, Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) last week issued a circular allowing provisional admissions to students with backlogs in the previous academic years, as a ‘special matter’, only for 2025-26.Of the 44 credits in a year, an engineering undergraduate student needs to earn 22 credits to pass, and out of 56 credits, an architecture undergraduate student needs to earn 28 credits to pass their course. However, there is another rule for getting promoted to the next year.Prabhakar Desai, director of Examination and Evaluation at SPPU, said, “A second-year student cannot be promoted to the third year if they have even a single backlog from the first year, even if they get all required credits in the second year. Similarly, a third-year student cannot be promoted to the fourth year if they have any backlogs from the second year, and a fourth-year student cannot be promoted to the fifth year if they have any backlogs in the third year. These backlogs are called critical.” Now, these students with critical backlogs will benefit from the decision.They will appear for their critical backlogs in the winter exam session of 2025-26 and if they pass, their admission will be made permanent. If they fail, no fees will be refunded, and their admission will stand cancelled. The students who pass the critical backlogs will appear for all the other exams, including both semesters of the current year in the summer exam session of 2025-26, Desai said. There are approximately 30k such students with critical backlogs.On Thursday, Youth Congress members held the third student protest for the temporary carry-forward facility, after which the notification was released by SPPU.
