The UGC recently issued certain directives for affiliated universities to commence exams for final-year students by the end of September. This directive was not well received by the State’s Student Union. Even the Higher Education Minister, Uday Samant wrote a letter to the Central Govt. to seek uniform guidelines for awarding degrees to students on the basis of an appropriate evaluation formula. Instead the UGC had approved that exams can be conducted in an offline, online, or blended mode to award the degrees.
Samant stated that he believes the directive is more like an advisory than a directive and should be taken as such. He mentioned that the State will not be able to conduct exams in review of both – the pandemic as well as the disaster management committee.
The students of Maharashtra have certainly revolted against this on twitter with the #SayNoToUGC. The Students’ Union has also decided to seek legal discourse for the same since the guidelines aren’t clear about their mandatory status and would thereby cause confusion. Moreover, the President of the committee stated that as the pandemic situation remains unpredictable, it is hard to conduct the exams by September while ensuring the health of the students.
Meanwhile it all depends on the response Samant receives from the Minister of Human Resource Development. He also mentioned in his letter that several states are allowing students to take exams on an optional basis, and that even some IIT’s have cancelled final year examinations based on the current scenario.
Also See: UGC does not allows the exam cancellation for graduating students
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