While faculty authorities and students each held the other responsible, both parties agreed that delayed admissions and, consequently, abbreviated term-time, could have had a role to play in the abysmal results. Also blamed was the frequent disruptions in classes over the academic year.

Faculty vice-dean S R Pandya, however, said, ``We can attribute the poor pass percentage to the fact that students with low percentages were admitted to departments like Chemistry. These were the students who did not secure admission in the Engineering faculty and then had no option but to turn to Science.''

Despite recognising the fact that poor student quality would reflect on the results, the faculty has no plans to demarcate a cut-off percentage for admissions. ``Seats cannot be allowed to remain empty'', said Pandya, even while admitting that the poor results were affecting the faculty's reputation.

The no-empty-seat principle is what led to students being admitted to the faculty as late as February, while the session began last July. ``Since there were vacancies in the Physics and Chemistry departments in end-January, students switching from or rejected by the Engineering faculty were accommodated that late in the academic year'', Pandya said. ``This is definitely harmful for the faculty, but there's no other way.''

But students who joined the faculty mid-term were given no scope to catch up with the rest of the class. ``Most of the syllabus is already covered by the time these students joined. There were no extra classes for them'', Pandya said.

Moreover, by Pandya's own admission, the late-comers were only a small percentage of the 14,000 who appeared for the FYBSc examinations. Thus, only a few can be said to have had an academic disadvantage from the word go.

Students squarely blamed the teachers' ``lack of interest'' for the pathetic results. Ritesh Soni, who cleared the examinations, said, ``Though classes were regular at the faculty, there was a lot of disturbances before we closed for the Diwali vacations.''

Added Shah's batchmate Jitendra Pandya, ``If students are admitted as late as January, surely it's also the faculty's responsibility to see they're taught accordingly.''

While MSU Vice-Chancellor Anil Kane said he had no idea whether the faculty planned to re-draw criteria for admissions, Science faculty dean Bonny Pilo said all they could do was convince students not to change their subjects late in the day. ``Also, students who secure admission late into a faculty will have to understand they're doing so at their own risk'', he added.