Mumbai: Students pursuing their graduation in Pharmacy from Mumbai University are demanding a change in the old university rules, which forces a student to drop a year if they fail in their exams.

The rule says that if a student appears in the March 2008 examination and does not clear it and thereafter opts for a second attempt in October 2008 and clears it, he will be forced to drop out of the next year and take admission in 2010.

Suhas Pundit, a student of Sterling Pharmacy College who had to drop out of his second year said, "It is so difficult to get a job or get selected in a good American university with the mark sheet reflecting a drop".

According to Gajanand Kale, president of Samtavadi Chattrabharati, a students' organisation working with Pharmacy students on this issue, said, "The University must make amendments in the Pharmacy course passing criteria and bring it on par with the norms followed for the engineering course. Engineering students need to obtain 40 percent marks in aggregate while pharmacy students need to obtain 40 percent marks in each paper and in aggregate 50 percent marks".

"We have to drop an academic year if we fail any of the university examination. But each college has different rules for its examinations", said Punit Pradhan, a student of Saraswati Pharmacy College.

Examinations are conducted by the University for Fourth, Seventh and Eighth semesters, while individual colleges conduct examinations for the First, Third and Fifth semester.

"We want the university to allow us to carry our ATKT subjects till the final year, so we can continue with our academic sessions", a student said.

Vice-chancellor of the varsity, Vijay Khole has said that the Academic Council will meet next week to discuss the issues before a final decision can be taken.