No revaluation options to be available for one-hour 50 marks online exams
@hepzia
Mumbai: The Mumbai University (MU) has announced that final year theory exams will be an hour-long online session of 50 marks paper and will include only that part of syllabus that has been taught in college till March 13, 2020, a MU circular stated.
Since, the exams will be conducted online in Multi Choice Question (MCQ) format, there will be no revaluation option for students. Since this is a new exam format for students, universities will provide question banks and even mock tests to help them get familiar with the format.
The final year theory exams are scheduled from Oct 1-17, while the backlog exams will start from September 25. The practical and viva exams will be conducted online on platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, Skype etc) or by telephone from 15th September 2020.
Universities have been asked to survey the digital access options available for students. Accordingly students have been asked to submit forms with queries about their access to laptops and smartphones and if they could make necessary arrangements for them. The universities have been asked to make alternate arrangements for those students who do not have digital access to take exams.
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“Universities will be taking help of technology partners to conduct exams, who will offer alternative solutions like offline mode or sending exam links on email or WhatsApp and may even provide centers where students could appear for exams,” a senior higher and technical education department official informed.
“Online exams have already been tried and tested in many private institutions and universities across the country for about a decade now. Most exam software systems have inbuilt mechanisms like automatically saving attempted questions etc to deal with challenges like a sudden cut in internet or electricity connection,” said the official.
Though the state had earlier stated that individual universities would be allowed to decide their own exam format for the final year exams, the state got most to agree to the MCQ digital format of exams. Sources revealed that the state prevailed upon Amravati University to reconsider their decision to conduct physical pen-paper examinations citing lack of digital access among students.
“The Amravati University was told that pen-paper exams would considerably delay the exam schedule beyond October 31, the deadline set by the state. They were also told that with Covid cases rising, there were chances of physical exams being pushed forth till December and they could be the only ones left behind, which deterred them,” reveals an official.
A delegation of the Maharashtra Students Union (MASU) met the higher and technical education minister Uday Samant on Wednesday opposing the physical exam format for final semesters in the state.
A meeting of the state disaster management team is expected by September 10-11 to formally seek time extension from the University Grants Commission (UGC).
The state announced that admissions for the Masters of Business Administration (MBA) and Masters in Management Studies (MMS) will be held after the final year examinations wrap up in the second week of October, Samant informed.
