University of Mumbai’s distance education wing postpones all exams; to start from October 19

After postponing three examinations within a week for students of the distance education wing of the University of Mumbai, the Institute of Distance and Open Learning

After postponing three examinations within a week for students of the distance education wing of the University of Mumbai, the Institute of Distance and Open Learning (IDOL) on Wednesday announced postponement of all IDOL exams. The rescheduled exams will now commence from October 19, but the timetable for the same will be released later.

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This announcement comes a day after around 9,000 third-year BCom and third-year BA students could not attempt their paper on Tuesday due to “technical glitches”. Many students complained of not being able to log in to the link on the examination application prescribed to students by the university. In a statement on Tuesday, the university blamed the errors on a cyberattack on the examination software.

“In a meeting of the board of examination (BoE) on Wednesday, it was decided to clarify all queries raised by students and ensure no technical errors affect exams henceforth. Therefore, all exams will be conducted starting October 19,” said the statement released by IDOL on Wednesday. However, there’s no clarity on the status of re-examination for students who managed to attempt their paper on Saturday (October 3).

Due to Covid-19 pandemic, this year all final-year exams are being conducted online. IDOL exams commenced on October 3. On the first day, several students complained about not being able to attempt the one-hour paper due to server issues, following which, the university announced a re-exam for the paper at a later date. The same problem cropped up the next day as well, following which, thousands of students gathered at the IDOL office at the university’s Kalina campus.

“The examination software company is currently working on all queries raised by students, and we want to make sure that such problems don’t crop up in the future. New exam dates will be announced soon,” said a spokesperson for the university.

While the university is still unclear on what is causing the “technical glitches”, members of the Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena (MNVS) demanded that the university terminate services of the software company, LittleMORE Innovation Labs, which was hired to conduct exams this year. “All exams should be cancelled till the software company is able to conduct exams for students in large numbers. Students don’t need more anxiety than they are already facing,” said Santosh Gangurde, state vice-president of MNVS.