Poor performance of students pursuing four-year undergraduate courses from colleges affiliated with North Bengal University (NBU) in different semesters has prompted the varsity to start workshops for teachers to improve academic results in the future.

"When the results of three different semesters of the UG courses were published earlier this month, it was found that around 75 per cent of the students failed in one or more subjects. Some students have failed by a margin of one or two marks. This is indeed a matter of concern,” said Mahendranath Roy, the dean of science, arts, commerce, and law at NBU.

Sources at the varsity said over 70,000 students from around 51 colleges had appeared for the exams. “Of them, around 52,500 students failed,” a source said.

Like other universities in Bengal and the country, NBU has introduced the four-year undergraduate course in 2023 according to the National Education Policy (NEP). This has replaced the earlier UG course of three years.

“According to the policy, students need to appear for exams in two semesters every year. If they fail in one or more subjects in any semester, they can appear in the exam for those subjects twice more,” said an academic.

Roy, the dean, said that to address the situation, the NBU started conducting workshops for teachers to ensure that the students were taught properly and got a better understanding of the subjects.

On Wednesday, NBU hosted a session focusing on mathematics. Teachers from colleges in Alipurduar, Dhupguri, Mainaguri, Jalpaiguri and the hills participated in the workshop.

“Similar workshops for other disciplines are in the pipeline. We want to identify the gaps that are leading to such poor academic results and simultaneously explore options to bridge such gaps,” he said.

Nupur Das, the acting registrar and secretary of the undergraduate council at the NBU, said that like any other varsity, they were adhering to the guidelines of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

“Both the teachers and the students have to work together to improve the results. The workshops, we believe, will turn out to be effective and will help the varsity continue with the four-year UG course according to the guidelines of NEP and UGC,” she said.