Final-year exams cancelled: City colleges seek more clarity

A day after chief minister Uddhav Thackeray announced that all final-year students will be promoted based on their performance in previous semesters, colleges and

A day after chief minister Uddhav Thackeray announced that all final-year students will be promoted based on their performance in previous semesters, colleges and students are confused. While some are unsure about how this will affect their future higher education plans, colleges too are unsure about how the decision will be applied in the coming weeks.

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“The government or university needs to clarify how this decision will affect students with backlog of papers from previous semesters which they need to clear in order to graduate. We are also unsure if the decision is applicable to post-graduate students as well,” said a senior professor from a south Mumbai college.

Students of autonomous institutes, some of which already conducted exams for two or more papers of the final semester, are also in confusion about their situation. “How will the college grade us? We’ve already appeared for two papers for the current semester. With so many new decisions coming from the government regarding status of exams and promotion of students, we are confused about our status,” said a student.

Students of Mithibai Autonomous College, Vile Parle, are also unsure about their status. Not only have students raised objection to the institute’s decision last year of introducing a new grading formula which many said lowered their scores in the previous semester, more than a hundred final-year students of the institute were also debarred by the administration for defaulting on attendance.

“We had also taken this matter to court but the high court had upheld the institute’s decision. Since the Union and state government have made it clear that all students have to be promoted, regardless of attendance, we are still waiting to hear from the institute about our status. We haven’t got any help from the institute,” said a student of Mithibai Autonomous College. Principal Rajpal Hande was not available for comments.

While clarity on aggregate marks in order to promote students is still unclear, many institutions are happy with the government’s decision to avoid exams and instead promote all students. “Many employers are requesting that students be relieved so that they can join the work force at the earliest. An exam for students in such large numbers is not possible anymore, so I’m glad the chief minister took the right call,” said Gopakumaran Thampi, principal of Thadomal Shahani Engineering College, Bandra. He added that many students might opt for the exam session in October-November in case they don’t get grades as per their expectations.