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Panjab University students express dismay over UGC’s decision to hold final exams
The members of the NSUI started a chain hunger strike at Sector 35 to express their outrage against the decision
The University Grants Commission’s (UGC) decision to hold final year exams has not gone down well with the Panjab University(PU) students.
The students on Tuesday expressed their dismay over the UGC’s latest guidelines.
According to the guidelines issued by the UGC on Monday, universities are to conduct final year or end semester examinations in offline, online, or blended(offline and online) mode, by September.
The members of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) started a chain hunger strike at Sector 35 to express their outrage against the decision and demanded that the UGC should not ask universities to conduct examinations amid the pandemic.
While on hunger strike, Rahul Kumar, who was elected as vice-president of Panjab University Campus Students Council (PUCSC) last year, said, “The UGC should not put the students’ lives at risk by conducting examinations. We demand that examinations should be cancelled and students should be promoted based on the previous semester’s assessment.”
Many other student organisations at PU have demanded the scrapping of examinations amid pandemic.
PU’s Students For Society (SFS) said, “UGC has issued vague guidelines with no real assurance to students. No classes have been conducted since the lockdown was imposed and students have insufficient study material with them. We demand that examinations for all semesters should be cancelled unconditionally and equivalent credit should be given for assignments and other projects.”
Another student organisation, Youth For Swaraj, also submitted a memorandum to the varsity and demanded that PU should follow the guidelines issued by the Punjab government instead of the UGC.
FINAL DECISION YET TO BE ANNOUNCED
PU is yet to make an announcement regarding the examinations. The officials had earlier stated that they were waiting for the UGC’s new guidelines. It was also learnt that a meeting was held on Tuesday at the university but no decision was taken. However, an official said, “The university is preparing a plan for the implementation of the UGC guidelines keeping in mind the interest of the students.”
