Unical Affirms Expulsion Of Students Placed On ‘Withdrawal’ Status

The University of Calabar (UNICAL) on Wednesday affirmed the expulsion of 566 students who were placed on withdrawal status over their poor Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA).

The University was reacting to Prime Business Africa publication on Tuesday which broke the news that the institution had withdrawn that number over poor performance.

The students, it was learnt, however, have the option of changing to other departments within the faculty ready to absorb them.

Affirming the story, the source who did not want his name mentioned, emphasised that “Withdrawal does not mean ‘change programme’ as a change of programme is an instruction on the portal by itself. But most students, instead of withdrawing and leaving the university, approach any other department which may accept them all over instead of going to write JAMB again.

“It’s about how the affected student wants to approach it and whether there is vacancy elsewhere to accommodate them.”

According to him, the development is a reflection of students’ academic standing automatically generated by the result portal of the institution which tracks and determines their academic status.

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He said, “What happened is that the University of Calabar has a result Portal that automatically calculates individual student’s CGPA and recommends the next step for the student based on per-semester performance.

“The portal states clearly whether the student has ‘passed’, ‘on probation’, ‘withdrawn’, should ‘change programme’, etc.

“Therefore, every student knows their standing in the university on per-semester or per-session basis.”

“The sad thing, however, is that most students pretend and physically stick around departments and programmes they have been advised by the Portal to vacate even though the portal automatically exits them and makes it impossible for them to either register courses, pay school fees or even proceed academically,” he explained further.

He noted that the publication was for the guidance of the students, their parents and guardians.

“The university has therefore thought it wise to publish such names so that such students and even their parents and guardians are adequately guided,” the source said.

Throwing light on the difference between ‘expulsion’ and ‘withdrawal’ however, he said, “Expulsion on the other hand is a punitive measure taken against a student who errs, either through exam malpractices, social misdemeanors and the like. It means the student is to leave the university and never return. It is the extreme of ‘rustication’; and this decision can only be taken by the University Senate. This is not the case of those students whose names were published.

“Withdrawal is an advisory issued by a university to a student to leave the university for not meeting a set academic standard. This academic standard is usually in the form of abysmally low CGPA or too many carry-overs, etc.”