Universities in Delhi planning to hold online exams

The Delhi government universities are planning to hold online examinations, Vice-Chancellors of the universities informed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday.

Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia held a review meeting with the VCs regarding the academic matters, the government said in a statement.

The meeting was attended by the Vice-Chancellors of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University; Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology; Delhi Technological University; Ambedkar University, Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women; National Law University; Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research University and the Director of IIIT Delhi.

"The VCs, during the meeting, have apprised the CM that they are planning to conduct the remaining examinations online," the statement said.

The Chief Minister inquired about the admission status of the new session, placement situation of the current students and the effect of COVID-19 on the placement of the students.

"The CM and the Dy CM focused on three key issues in this meeting pertaining to the academics and the effect of COVID-19 outbreak. First, they discussed how the universities are planning the admission process of the upcoming academic session. Second, they discussed the action plan of the universities to conduct the pending examinations and how they will conduct the next academic session," the statement said.

Third, they discussed the issue of the final year students who have already got placement but some examinations are pending.

"In such cases, if the students do not get any degree certificate from the universities, then they will face issues in joining the new companies. The possibility of universities providing a provisional degree certificate to these students so that they do not face any problem in joining their companies was also discussed."

"In this situation, the universities should use the technology more proactively in the academics to recover the academic losses due to the pandemic. Social distancing is the key to fight this pandemic, therefore, every university should plan the academic sessions and running of the universities keeping in mind the social distancing norms," Kejriwal said.

Sisodia said that many universities have a business faculty and department.

"These universities should suggest to the Delhi government what steps should be taken to revive Delhi's economy in the post-COVID-19 lockdown phase."