Maharashtra medical education minister Amit Deshmukh on Thursday announced that Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) exams, scheduled to begin from April 19, have been postponed. The decision comes days after the undergraduate medical students approached MUHS and state government officials, requesting them to postpone their exams.
Maharashtra medical education minister Amit Deshmukh tweeted on Thursday that the decision to postpone the exams was taken after consulting the chief minister and a revised schedule will be released soon.
“After deliberations with the state chief minister, it has been decided that the MUHS exams scheduled to begin from April 19 will now take place in June 2021,” tweeted Deshmukh. An official circular on this decision will be released by MUHS by the end of today, said officials from the university.
The exams were originally scheduled to take place in February, but were deferred first to March and then to April by the MUHS due to increasing Covid-19 cases and complaints of several medical students. According to the letter addressed to MUHS by students, at present at least 500 students from several medical colleges in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Satara and Solapur are currently in quarantine after testing positive, while many others have family members who tested positive recently and have to follow the two-week quarantine period.
“Some students are also currently stuck in mini-containment zones, making it impossible for them to leave the residential premises. Hostels, too, are overcrowded with four students sharing a single room and bathroom, which is the main reason for increasing cases in colleges,” said a second-year student from Government Medical College, Solapur.
{{/usCountry}}“Some students are also currently stuck in mini-containment zones, making it impossible for them to leave the residential premises. Hostels, too, are overcrowded with four students sharing a single room and bathroom, which is the main reason for increasing cases in colleges,” said a second-year student from Government Medical College, Solapur.
{{/usCountry}}Along with MBBS, this decision also affects Ayurveda, homeopathy and similar courses affiliated with the university. A fresh exam schedule will be released by the examination department at the earliest, said university officials.