Pune: Finally, the wait and anxiety among lakhs of students pursuing higher education at university and graduate-level ended on Friday, after the Maharashtra Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant announced that only final year examinations of all the branches of undergraduate and postgraduate courses will be held.
In a live Facebook interaction with the students, Samant announced that except for final year students, all other students will be either promoted or as per the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines will be carried forward as per their academic performance.
FOLLOWING THE UGC
Guidelines on examination and the academic calendar, a committee was set by the state government consisting of six members which included Mumbai University Vice-Chancellor (VC) Suhas Pednekar, Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) VC Nitin Karmalkar, SNDT University’s VC Sashikala Wanjari, Kolhapur’s Shivaji University VC Devanad Shinde, Technical Education Director Abhay Wagh, Higher Education Director Dhanraj Mane.
The committee reviewed and submitted its report on Wednesday. All 13 VCs of state universities and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and higher authorities of state governments have agreed to this decision.
About eight to nine lakh students will appear for the final examination across Maharashtra, stated Samant.
“Exams of the final year last semester or annual examination will be held. Universities have been directed to notify students about the timetable of examination within two days,” said Samant.
The minister also stated that the attendance of students for these 45 days of lockdown will be considered as ‘students were present on campus’. He also stated that the exams are most likely to be held in July, and students should prepare accordingly.
“As per the UGC guidelines, the exams will be conducted between July 1-30. The guidelines have also mentioned that if the lockdown situation and COVID-19 cases remain the same, then the abovementioned authorities will once again review the situation on June 20-25,” Samant added.
SPPU VC Nitin Karmalkar informed that the university administration is working to formulate an action plan about the conduct of examination as announced by the state education minister.
He also informed that varsity is working in the direction of Maharashta government and UGC's guidelines to establish an information and counselling cell in every district. Students will be updated about information related to government decisions from these cells.
COMMON ENTRANCE TEST AFTER XII
The Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Mains will be held between July 18-23. So after the Std XII examination results are out, Common Entrance Test (CET) for admission into undergraduate courses will be held between July 1-15 and CET for admission into postgraduate courses will be conducted between July 23-30.
A committee has been established which will release a complete detailed report on the CET exam including the efforts to arrange examination centres at Taluka level within eight days.