All state university exams to be held offline, says minister

This decision was taken in a meeting held between Samant and vice chancellors of all state universities, where the officials unanimously agreed to go offline for all exams between April and May

Mumbai Putting an end to confusion amongst universities, state minister for higher and technical education Uday Samant on Monday clarified that all state university summer 2022 exams will be held offline.

This move comes days after officials at the Nagpur University decided to postpone exams starting April 25 and conduct them online (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

This decision was taken in a meeting held between Samant and vice chancellors of all state universities, where the officials unanimously agreed to go offline for all exams to be held between April and May 2022.

This move comes days after officials at the Nagpur University decided to postpone exams starting April 25 and conduct them online. The move invited flak from students of other state universities, all demanding a similar option.

However, officials at University of Mumbai felt that this move will not affect any exam schedule for affiliated colleges. “All our remaining exams are to be held offline as per the original schedule,” said an official from MU. He added that the ongoing final-year undergraduate exams, which are currently being held online, will continue in the same mode. “We can’t change the examination mode in the middle of the session. However, the rest of the exams will be offline,” he added.

While TYBCom exams started online on April 19, this was followed by TYBA and TYBSc exams that commenced from April 21.

After nearly two years of online exams, most state universities suggested bringing offline exams back for the summer 2022 session.

In February this year, MU released a circular stating that summer 2022 exams will be held online, as well as offline. All UG exams for commerce, arts and science session 2 (regular) and backlog exams for the same batches will be conducted offline. However, backlog exams (ATKT) for semesters 1, 3 and 5, as well as semester 4 exams for regular and backlog students have been conducted online this year.

In the first week of March, MU released another statement confirming that semester 6 exams for traditional (aided and unaided) courses will be conducted online this year, whereas all exams for professional courses, as well as postgraduate exams for all departments, will be held offline.

“This clarity from the government was much needed because too many student groups are using examples from other state universities as an arm twisting technique to move their own exams to online. With this diktat, all students will now have no choice but to appear for offline exams,” said the principal of a suburban college.

Minister Uday Samant was unavailable for comments despite repeated calls and messages.