Annexure I: B.Tech.

Ordinances

Chapter XXXIV-G
BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
(EFFECTIVE FROM THE SESSION 2017 – 18)
Recommended by Faculty on 24.04.2017, vetted by drafting committee on 31.7.2017 and Approved
by the AC on 19.8.2017

1. Introduction
(a) The Faculty of Engineering & Technology, Aligarh Muslim University offers full-time program leading to the
Bachelor of Technology (B. Tech.) degree in Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical
Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Petrochemical Engineering.

(b) The medium of instruction in B. Tech. Program is English

2. Eligibility

A candidate will be eligible for admission to B. Tech. program if he/she has passed the Senior Secondary School
Certificate (10+2) Examination of this University or an Examination recognized by this University as its equivalent with
50% marks in aggregate of English, Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics, or have passed the Diploma in
Engineering Examination of this University with 50% marks in aggregate.

3. Admission

(a) The admissions to the B. Tech. programs will be made normally in the b e g i n ni n g o f a n a c a d e mi c
s e s s io n . as per the admission policy approved by the Academic Council of the University from time to time.
The admission of each student will be made in a particular branch.

(b) A limited number of students may be allowed to change over from one branch of study to another, after first
year of study, depending on the availability of seats and their performance in the first two semesters. Merit list
for the branch change will be prepared on the basis of CPI of the applicants at the end of II Semester. In case of
equal CPI, preference will be given to the student who has scored more aggregate marks in the first two
semesters. However, change in branch of a student will not be permissible if:
(i) The student has not obtained pass grades in all the courses of first two semesters.
(ii) If CPI of the student is less than 7.5.
(iii) If his/her branch transfer results in number of students falling below 70% of the approved intake in
his/her original branch.

4. Academic s ession

The academic session is divided into two regular semesters – Odd and Even, each of which shall be of
approximately 20 weeks duration. The Odd semester will normally commence in the month of July/August every year,
and the Even in the month of December/January. In the beginning of every session the Dean, in consultation with
the Chairmen of the departments concerned, shall notify a detailed academic calendar indicating the schedule of
teaching, examination, and other activities.

5. Duration of the Program

5.1 Minimum Duration

The minimum duration of the program shall be eight consecutive semesters after admission.

5.2 Maximum Duration

The maximum duration of the program shall be fourteen consecutive semesters after admission.

6. Curriculum and Credit System

6.1 Credit System
Each B. Tech. program will have a curriculum in which every course will be assigned certain credits reflecting its weight
and contact periods per week, as given below:

1 Lecture period (L) per week = 1 Credit

Page 557
 Annexure I: B.Tech. Ordinances
1 Tutorial period (T) per week = 1 Credit
1 Practical period (P) per week = 0.5 Credit

In addition to theory and laboratory courses there may be other courses such as seminar, colloquium, project, etc.,
which will be assigned credits as per their contribution in the program without regard to contact periods.

6.2 Course Categories

The curriculum for each branch will contain courses in the following categories having credits in the ranges given below
in such a way that the total of all credits will be equal to that required for the award of degree as specified
elsewhere in these ordinances.

Course Cataegories Credit Ranges

Basic Sciences (BS) (Courses such as Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics etc 20-36
Engineering Sciences & Arts (ESA) (Foundation and applied engineering 20-40
courses that are used across many branches)
Humanities and Management (HM) (Language, Social science, & 10-18
Management)
Departmental Core (DC) 60-116
Departmental Electives (DE) 16-32
Open Electives (OE 8-16

6.3 Coordinators and Curriculum Development Committee.

There shall be a Chief Coordinator, B. Tech. Programs to be nominated by the Dean, and a Coordinator, B.Tech.
Program for each branch in each department, to be nominated by the Chairman of the department concerned. There
shall be a Curriculum Development Committee (CDC) in each department and also a central CDC at the Faculty level.
The departmental CDC will be constituted by the board of studies of the concerned department. The central CDC will
comprise of the f o l l o w i n g :
1. Senior most Professor of Z.H. College of Engineering & Technology, next to Dean as Chairman
2. Chief Coordinator, B. Tech. Programs, as convener.
3. Chief tabulator, Z.H. College of Engineering & Technology
4. Coordinators of CDC of each department, as member.
5. Three teachers of Z.H. College of Engineering & Technology, nominated by the Faculty, as member for a
period of two years.

6.4 The Curriculum Structure

The curriculum for each branch will contain a listing of all courses, with each course having a course category, course
number, course title, number of contact periods per week, number of credits assigned, pre-requisite course(s) if any,
and the marks assigned to various components of evaluation. It will also have a list of alternative courses in the new
curriculum for the old curriculum courses and filler courses to compensate for the shortfall in credits earned by taking
alternative courses in any category, if needed. It will also specify all other conditions required for the award of degree.

6.5 Approval of the Curriculum

The curriculum for each branch of B. Tech. program will be prepared by the department concerned and will be
approved by the Board of Studies of the department. It will then be vetted by the CDC and will then be placed in the
Faculty along with the recommendations of the CDC for approval. Once approved by the Faculty, the Curriculum will be
implemented. The same procedure shall be used for any modification in the Curriculum.

7. Registration

7.1 Registration Procedure and Schedule

(a) Every student is required to register, for each semester, for the courses that he/she wants to pursue in that
semester. The student will have to choose any of the following modes of registration:

Mode Requirements
a Fulfill class attendance requirement and appear in all components of evaluation.
b Appear in all components of evaluation.
c Appear in end semester exam only. Previous sessional marks will be considered.

Page 558
 Annexure I: B.Tech. Ordinances

Registration in modes ‘b’ and ‘c’ will be permissible only if the student had registered in mode ‘a’ and fulfilled
attendance requirement in earlier semester. The registration schedule will be announced by the Dean for every
semester. The registration proc edure will be notified by the Chief Coordinator, B. Tech. Programs.
(b) A student will normally register for higher semester courses only if he has also registered for un- cleared courses
of previous semesters, especially in the case of un-cleared courses of first two semesters.

(c) A student will have the option to add/delete/alter the courses in his/her registration within a week of the
registration subject to such conditions as may be imposed by the department concerned from time to time.

(d) A student can drop a course from his/her registration by submitting a request to his/her department
coordinator up to a date specified on his/her registration card. A registered course will be counted as an attempt
even if the student remains absent in the Examination(s).

(e) No student will be allowed to register for more than 40 credits in a semester.

(f) A student may be denied registration in a course due to reasons of paucity of staff or space or other facilities,
especially in case the student is registering a course for improving the grade in a passed course.

(g) If a student fails to register in two consecutive semesters without specific permission from the Dean, his/her
name may be removed from the rolls of the faculty. Such a student may apply to the Dean for re-admission
stating the reasons for not being able to register for two consecutive semesters and the Dean will take
suitable decision on the merit of the case.

(h) Registration for the graduating course will be done after the declaration of the results of each semester. Last date of
registration will be notified by the Dean.

(i) A department may allow a final year student to register up to a maximum of 3 courses, not running in the current
semester in mode ‘c’ (defined in clause 7.1 a), only if without it, graduation of the student will be delayed by at least
one semester.

(j) A department may allow a III-year student to register a final year level theory course running in the current semester
provided the student:
1. has CPI equal to or more than 8.5
2. has no backlog courses
3. has cleared the pre-requisite courses of the course he/she wants to register

7.2 Graduating Course

A student may be allowed to register for one course of not more than 4 credits if he/she is able to graduate by passing
such a course, irrespective of whether the course is being offered in the current semester to regular students or not,
provided that the student has fulfilled the attendance requirement earlier and has been awarded E or I grade in that
course. Such a course shall be known as a graduating course.

8 Attendance (In lieu of Chapter XVII of the Academic Ordinances)

Attendance in each course separately is compulsory at least once. Students who have put in 75% or more attendance
in a course in a semester will be eligible to appear in the End-Semester Examination of that course. Students
who have put in 65% or more but less than 75% attendance in a course may be considered for condonation of
shortage of attendance in that course by the condonation committee. Students whose attendance in a course is
less than 65% or whose shortage in attendance has not been condoned will not be eligible to appear in the End-
Semester Examination of that course and will be awarded grade ‘F’ in that course and all marks obtained in any
component of the course-evaluation will stand cancelled. However, in case a student is repeating a course and the
student has already fulfilled the attendance requirement in that course, he/she will not be detained due to shortage of
attendance in that course during
the repeating semester.

9. Examination and Evaluation (In lieu of Clause (9) of Chapter XV of the existing Academic Ordinances)

9.1 Components of Evaluation

Page 559
 Annexure I: B.Tech. Ordinances
Each course will be evaluated out of 100 marks. The courses will normally have the following components of
evaluation:
(a) Theory Courses
Course work 15 marks
Mid-Semester Examination 25 marks
End-Semester Examination 60 marks
(b) Laboratory courses including Seminar, Colloquium, Project, mini-project etc.
Course work 60 marks
End-Semester Examination 40 marks
However, for special academic reasons, some courses may have different weight for different components of evaluation
from that given above. Such special reasons will be spelt out clearly in the curriculum.

9.2 Grading S ystem

The combined marks obtained by a student in various components of evaluation of a course shall be converted into
regular letter grades with their equivalent grade points as specified below

Grade Grade points Description

A+ 10 Outstanding
A 9 Excellent
B+ 8 Very good
B 7 Good
C 6 Average
D 5 Satisfactory
E 0 Unsatisfactory (Fail)
F 0 Detained due to shortage of attendance
I 0 Incomplete/Absent in the End-Semester Examination
Z 0 Cancelled due to other reasons

The following marks ranges may ordinarily be used for the award of grades to the students in a theory course.

Range Grade
81 and above A+
71 and above but less than 81 A
61 and above but less than 71 B+
51 and above but less than 61 B
41 and above but less than 51 C
35 and above but less than 41 D (Minimum Pass Grade)
Less than 35 E

For a lab course the grade ranges will be as follows:

Range Grade
81 and above A+
71 and above but less than 81 A
61 and above but less than 71 B+
51 and above but less than 61 B (Minimum Pass Grade)
Less than 51 E

Two grace marks may be awarded by the examiner for passing a course and one grace mark may be awarded by the
examiner to elevate the grade. Any fraction in any component of evaluation should be rounded off to the next whole
number.
The following distribution of various grades will be considered as normal. In such a case grade range cannot be
modified.
Grades Population Percentage Range
Theory Courses Lab Courses
A+ and A (combined together) 15-50% 25-75%
B+ and B (combined together) 30-70% 25-75%
C and D (combined together) 15-40% ----

For a particular course, if the grade distribution is out of the range as described above, the examiner(s) may propose
higher or lower grade, but the final decision rests with the Result Moderation Committee. However, the minimum

Page 560
 Annexure I: B.Tech. Ordinances
passing grade should never be awarded if a student secures below 35 marks (including 2 grace marks) in a theory
course and 51 marks (including 2 grace marks) in a lab course.

9.3 Evaluation of a Graduating Course

A graduating course shall be evaluated on the basis of the End-Semester Examination component of the course alone.
The student shall appear only in the End-Semester Examination of the graduating course. Grade D shall be awarded if
the student concerned obtains 35% or more of the marks allotted to End-Semester Examination alone. In case the
marks obtained are less than 35%, grade E will be awarded. Two grace marks, however, will be awarded for passing
the course.

9.4 Earned Credits (EC)

If a student passes a course by obtaining grade D or above, he/she earns the credits assigned to that course.

9.5 Performance Indices

At the end of every semester a student’s performance will be indicated by Earned Credits (EC), a Semester
Performance Index (SPI), and a Cumulative Performance Index (CPI). The SPI is the credit-weighted average of
grade points of all courses registered during a semester and is computed as follows:

SPI = (C1G1 + C2G2 +……) / (C1 + C2 +…….)

Where C1, C2, ….. are the credits assigned to courses and G1, G2, …… are the grade points earned in those courses.
The CPI is the credit-weighted average of grade points of all courses registered since admission. In case a student
has registered a course more than once, the best grade will be considered for calculation of CPI.

9.6 Repetition of a Failed Course

If a student registers a course but fails to fulfill attendance requirement, he/she will be required to register the
course (or its alternative) again in mode ‘a’.
In case the student completes attendance requirement but fails to secure a pass grade in a course, he/she has option of
registering the course again either in mode ‘b’ or in mode ‘c’.

9.7 Repetition of a Passed Course

A student may repeat a course to try to improve his/her grade in that course only once, provided that he/she has
passed that course in a single attempt. In such case the student will have to register the course again either in mode ‘b
or in mode ‘c. Requirements of mode ‘b’ and ‘c’ registrations are same as described in clause 7.1 a. For the purpose of
calculating the SPI the recently obtained grade will be considered while for CPI the better of the two grades will be
counted.

9.8 Conduct of Examinations

(a) The examiners for the End-Semester Examination of all theory courses will normally be the teacher(s)
associated with the course. The Seminar, Colloquium courses will be examined by the teacher(s) associated with the
course and one or more examiners from among the teachers of the department to be recommended by the BOS of the
department concerned. The laboratory and project courses will be examined by the teachers(s) associated with the
course and an external examiner not in the service of the university at the time of examination. In case the external
examiner does not turn up for the examination, the Chairman of the department concerned, in consultation with the
course in- charge, shall call another person to act as the external examiner, even from within the University, if
necessary.

(b) The End-Semester Examination of all graduating courses shall be conducted simultaneously after the declaration of the
result of each semester on a date notified by the Dean.

9.9 Moderation Committees

Page 561
 Annexure I: B.Tech. Ordinances
(a) Question Paper Moderation Committee: There shall be a Moderation Committee of the concerned Department
consisting of the following members to moderate the Question Papers of the End- Semester Examination.

(i) Chairman of the Department concerned – (Convener)

(ii) One senior teacher of the Department in each broad area of specialization (to be appointed by the
BOS).

Note: The Paper Setter(s) may be invited, if necessary, to clarify the necessary details of the question paper.

(b) Result Moderation Committee: There shall be a Result Moderation Committee of the concerned Department
consisting of the following members to moderate course-wise results of the End- Semester Examinations.
(i) Chairman of the Department concerned - (Convener)
(ii) One senior t eacher of the Department in each broad area of specialization (to be appointed by the BOS).
(iii) Examiner(s) concerned.

The Result Moderation Committee will examine the result of each theory course and in case of an abnormal situation; it
may take suitable corrective measures in consultation with the examiner(s). The examiner(s) will place the evaluated
answer scripts along with the brief solution and marking scheme before the Committee. In case of difference of opinion
among the members of the Committee, the majority decision will prevail, in which the examiner(s) will not participate.

10. Degree Requirement

(a) A student who earns 200 credits subject to the break up in various course categories and fulfills such other
conditions as may be mentioned in the curriculum will be awarded the degree of Bachelor of Technology. He/she must
also pay all University dues as per rules. Moreover, there should be no case of indiscipline pending against him/her.

(b) If a student earns more credits than the minimum required for the award of degree, his/her CPI will be calculated by
considering the best grades subject to fulfilling the criteria of required credits as specified in the curriculum.

11. Promotion, Name Removal from the Rolls of the University and Mercy Appeal

11.1 Promotion and Name Removal

The earned credits (EC) of every student will be checked at the end of even number of semesters. The difference
between the credits that a student is required to earn by the end of a semester (as per the curriculum) and actual credits
earned by the student will be counted as total uncleared credits. The student will be promoted to higher semester if the
total uncleared credits is less than or equal to as described in the following table, otherwise his/her result will be
declared as “Fail”:

Semester Maximum credit of backlog courses

II 24
IV 24, including not more than 8 credits of first two semesters
VI 24, including not more than 8 credits first four semesters

If a student gets “Fail” result more than thrice, his/her admission to the B. Tech. program will be cancelled and
his/her name will be removed from the rolls of the University.

11.2 Mercy Appeal

If the name of a student is removed from the rolls of the University as per provisions of clause 11.1 of these ordinances,
he/she may appeal to the Vice-Chancellor stating the reasons for not being able to earn the required credits and the
Vice-Chancellor, if he is satisfied with the reasons, may allow the continuation of admission of the student only once
during the tenure of the program, extending the total duration of the program by two semesters, at the maximum,
beyond 14 semesters, if required. Under no circumstances a student will be allowed to complete the program after the
lapse of 16 semesters after admission.

12. Result

(a) If a student passes all the examinations and fulfills all the requirements for the award of degree his/her result will be
shown as “Graduated”.

(b) The Division awarded to “Graduated” students will be based on CPI as given below:

First Division (Honours) CPI ≥ 8.5

Page 562
 Annexure I: B.Tech. Ordinances
First Division 6.5 ≤ CPI < 8.5
Second Division CPI < 6.5

At the end of each semester the CPI obtained by the student can be converted into equivalent percentage of marks by
the following formula:
Equivalent Percentage = 10*CPI

(c) At the end of Odd semester examination, result of the students will be declared as “Continued”. At the end of II, IV and
VI semester the result will be as follows:

PASS- if the total uncleared credits is zero

PROMOTED-if total uncleared credits is less than or equal to that described in clause 11.1
FAIL- if total uncleared credits is more than that described in clause 11.1

At the end of VIII Semester, if the student fulfills all the conditions for graduation, his/her result will be declared as
“GRADUATED”, otherwise his/her result will be declared as “FAIL”.

(d) If the name of a student is removed from the rolls of the University as per provisions of clause11.1 of these
ordinances his/her result will be shown as “Name Removed”.

(e) Ranks/Positions will be determined at the end of even semesters. Only those students who fulfill the following
conditions will be eligible for ranks/positions:

(i) They do not have any break in their studies;

(ii) They have passed every scheduled course in first attempt;
(iii) They have passed every course on time as per the curriculum;
(iv) They have earned credits as per the schedule given in the curriculum;
(v) They have not improved grade in any course after passing the course.

The students who violate any of the above conditions will not be awarded any rank/position. The ranks/positions will be
determined on the basis of CPI.

13. Transitory Clause

Candidates admitted prior to the implementation of these Ordinances shall be governed by the Ordinances (Academic)
under which they were admitted. Students who fail in the courses that are no more offered in these new ordinances and
new curriculum will be allowed to pass the alternative courses, and in case there are no alternative courses, the old
courses may be offered. For such candidates, any marks obtained earlier shall not be taken into account for passing
the course(s) and they will have to obtain marks in all components of evaluation afresh. A student admitted
previously may apply to the Dean through the Chairman concerned, to be governed by these ordinances. Such cases
may be allowed on a case by case basis.

Page 563