Colleges strained as UGC insists on exams for final year students

Earlier, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami had announced the cancellation of semester exams for first- and second-year students of UG courses of Arts, Science, and Engineering colleges in the State. However, the University Grants Commission (UGC) recently rejected the State’s request to cancel exams final-year students.

A senior official from the Higher Education Department told DT Next that the decision to conduct online exams by the Anna University has put even more pressure on other institutions.

“Considering the availability of infrastructure and internet access for students, especially in remote areas, it is impossible to uniformly adopt online examinations at this juncture,” he added.

Opposing UGC’s decision to conduct final semester exams, Association of University Teachers (AUT), the major faculty’s forum in the State, claimed that many colleges across the State were located near quarantine areas and there would be a risk in students and staff coming to the institutions for exams.

Echoing similar views of the Higher Education Department official on the online exam venture, AUT president Dr N Pasupathy said that conducting exams the traditional way is the only possible option at this juncture. “However, it will be a risk to organise exams amid the spread of the virus,” he added. He appealed that the government should once again ask the Centre for the exams to be waivered.

Joint Action Council of College Teachers, Tamil Nadu (JAC) Convenor R Dhamothran also said that UGC should allow the State to take its own decision on the academic activities according to the prevailing situation. “It will not be a big issue if exams were not conducted. It will be an issue only if exams were conducted when the spread of coronavirus is at the peak,” he added.