Rajshahi: In the face of protests by its students, the academic council of Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET) on Sunday cancelled the 33 credit system.

Council member Professor Iqbal Matin announced the decision at about 1:00pm after a meeting.

The meeting started at about 11:00am at the VC office.

Earlier, the agitating students kept confined 15 teachers, including Vice Chancellor Rafiqul Alam Beg, to the university academic building for around 24 hours from Saturday afternoon demanding cancellation of the system.

The university authorities introduced the system in 2013 under which a student will have to achieve minimum 33 credits, out of 40, to pass and move to the next session in newly adopted system.

As per the previous rule, students were allowed to attend classes and examinations of the next session despite their failure to achieve minimum credits. Later, they could obtain the credit through appearing in the examinations. The Ruet authorities cancelled the rule from 2013-14 session, replacing it with the 33 credit system.

The students of 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 sessions started their protest programme on January 28 demanding cancellation of the newly adopted examination system.

Earlier in August, 2015, the students besieged the vice-chancellor's office and staged a demonstration programme demanding cancellation of the system.