At BITS Pilani, we reject the conventional emphasis on a single final examination and numerical marks as the only absolute indication of the quality of student's performance. At the end of the semester teachers of the course award letter grades based on the overall performance of the student relative to the performance of others taking the same course.
We do not stipulate a minimum percentage of attendance before a student is permitted to appear in any test/examination. However every student is responsible for regularity of their attendance in classrooms and laboratories, and appearance in scheduled tests and examinations. The system has adequate resilience to accommodate unforeseen situations. In extreme cases when teachers unable to award any grade due to lack of attendance and initiative on the student’s part teachers are authorised to give a “Not Cleared” (NC) report.
There are certain other minimum academic requirements from each student regarding the performance and progress for the Integrated First Degrees and Higher Degrees such as:
• A CGPA of at least 4.5 at the end of every semester for integrated first degree students and 5.5 for higher degree/Ph.D. students.
• Not more than one E grade in a semester for integrated first degree programmes and no E grade in the higher degree programmes.
• The pace of progress of a student should be such that at any stage of reckoning the student should not have spent more than 50% extra time than what is prescribed for them up to that stage in programme.
Students who fail to meet the minimum academic requirements stipulated above are put under an appropriate committee which monitors their programmes and gives guidance so that they are properly rehabilitated at the earliest. In the case of Ph.D., this is done by the Doctoral Counseling Committee and in the case of higher degrees and integrated first degrees this is done by Academic Counseling Board (ACB). These Committees are appointed by the Senate and are given authority to take appropriate action including discontinuance of the student or transfer to other programme.