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Pune varsity to conduct written exams for final year students in July; no changes in fee structure
The exams will be based on 60 per cent syllabus completed before the national lockdown
The Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) will conduct written examinations for final-year graduate and post-graduate final year students, even as Maharashtra higher education minister Uday Samant has urged the University grants commission (UGC) to cancel all exams.
The university also announced that the old fee structure will be extended by a year to provide relief to students and parents in the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
As per UGC guidelines and state government’s experts’ committee, the exams for final year students will be held in the month of July.
The decision was taken at the Vidya Parishad meeting held by SPPU vice-chancellor Nitin Karmalkar on Saturday, an official said. The exams will be based on 60 per cent syllabus completed before the national lockdown. Accordingly, third year students will appear for the written exams which will be for 50 marks, with a duration of two hours.
This comes two days after Samant wrote to top education body expressing difficulty in conducting the exam for final year students.
While for the rest of the students, evaluation and marks will be given on the basis of earlier exams, internal marks, projects, and internships.
The university has made five committees that will be responsible to prepare a plan of action to conduct these exams. SPPU’s Vidya Parishad gave sanction to this action plan and the Parishad also gave sanction to the new syllabus of the undergraduate and post-graduate second-year courses at Saturday’s meeting.
“In the meeting held on Saturday it was decided to take written exams of final year students of both undergraduate and post-graduate students based on 60 per cent syllabus taught before lockdown. It will be held in the month of July and it will be of 50 marks with 2-hour time limit. Their evaluation will be done on the basis of earlier exam marks and the marks which they will obtain in this exam. While the students who have a backlog of any subject in the final year, their papers will be set by colleges and its checking will also be done by the college,” said SPPU vice-chancellor Karmalkar.
According to Mahesh Kakade, director examination and evaluation board of SPPU there will be no academic loss of any of the students of SPPU and its affiliated colleges.
“All the precautionary measures will be taken and lockdown rules will be followed while conducting this exam in the month of July. Soon a review meeting will be held to finalise the timetable of the exam.” Kakade said.
Meanwhile the proposed fee hike of all courses in SPPU will now be extended by one year, the final decision will be soon announced after the meeting of SPPU management council.
“SPPU has approved a new fee structure proposal for the courses, but as the students and parents are suffering through financial burdens due to Covid-19 lockdown it will be implemented after one year. This year according to the old fee structure, fees will be charged to the students.” Karmalkar said.
