A week after UGC came up with its recommendations to universities, Mumbai University has decided to only conduct final year and final semester examination this year. The students from remaining semesters and 1st and 2nd year will not be appearing for exams this year and will be promoted to then next year/semester, according to multiple reports.

Announcing the decision, Maharashtra’s minister for higher and technical education, Uday Samant on Friday said that the final year/semester students will be appearing for the exam which will be conducted from July 1st to July 30th,

The minister also said that the government expects the universities to be ready with the exam timetable soon. A review meeting will be held anywhere between June 20th and June 25th to confirm the next decision. The minister also said that if the lockdown is extended in the state, then the exams could be postponed further.

For the remaining students, the university has decided to adopt the UGC recommendations of 50-50 formula wherein students will be promoted based on 50% weightage to internal assessment and project work and 50% based on the previous semester.

The minister said that students who have not cleared subjects in the previous semester will be promoted provisionally and they need to clear the subject within 120 days of the new academic year.

The minister also said that all the universities, according to the UGC recommendations, should consider these 45 days in lockdown as time spent in college for all students and should be included in the attendance. The minister also requested universities to set up helpdesks to address all queries of students and parents.

The minister also floated proposals of cutting short the examination timings from 3 hours to 2 hours or from 100 marks to 80 marks but left it up to the universities to make a final decision. He also added that all viva and practical exams should be done online to maintain the social distancing protocol.

UGC had come up with its set of guidelines to universities and colleges on August 29th. UGC has recommended universities to conduct the annual/semester exams in the month of July and the result to be declared in the same month. The commission had also recommended the use of a simplified way of conducting the exam like shortening the exam duration and flexibility of both online and offline examination.

The state had formed a six-member committee consisting of vice-chancellors from Mumbai University, SNDT University, Pune University, Kolhapur University, and Director of Higher Education, and Director of Technical Education which was awaiting the UGC report before making its recommendations.