Cuttack, April 16: Tension prevailed at the Ravenshaw University over poor marks awarded to fifth semester commerce students.

The results were announced today.

Protesting against faulty evaluation, the students staged a demonstration on the campus and had gheraoed university officials, including the vice-chancellor, for over three hours till late in the evening.

They alleged that many of them had been awarded zero out of 40 in honours and compulsory subjects. Some students have scored 11 out of 10 marks in the internal examination.

The students have demanded re-evaluation of their answer sheets. They called off their agitation after local MLA Pravat Ranjan Biswal and police assured them of immediate steps to resolve their grievances.

Vice-chancellor Prakash Chandra Sarangi said: "The university had decided to form a special evaluation committee. And according to the students' demand, the answer copies with abnormal marks will be rechecked within seven days."

"I have scored 71 per cent in total aggregate, but I have been awarded five marks in environmental studies, whereas students of arts and science disciplines have scored over 40 in the same subject," said Swarna Prava Panda, a student.

Panda said the commerce students had to take the tests in two compulsory subjects, including environment studies and Indian society and culture. Both the subjects are compulsory for the arts and science streams in the undergraduate courses as well.

"The students have been poorly awarded marks in the honours subjects. Some students have been awarded with marks ranging from zero to seven out of 40," said Rashmi Ranjan Sahu, another student.

It is for the second time that the Ravenshaw University has witnessed students' unrest over poor evaluation since November last year.

Varsity sources said the answer copies of the undergraduate courses were being evaluated at the university, while various senior and retired professors outside the varsity had evaluated nearly 50 per cent of semester copies of postgraduate and self-financing courses to maintain transparency.

A senior official said that as most of the answer sheets were being evaluated outside the varsity, the students can seek answer copies by applying for re-addition and through the Right to Information Act.