Maharashtra government has decided that the state universities including Mumbai University will conduct the university final year exams in the first week of October. The announcement was made by the Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant, according to Times of India. The proposal to conduct the exam in October will be sent to the UGC soon.

After Supreme Court denied permission for states to cancel the university exam but allowed states to ask for the deadline extension, Maharashtra had said that they will abide by the order and will form a committee to explore the modalities for conducting the exam. The exam schedule will be released in two days, says the report.

Samant said all the state universities will conduct the exam in such a way to make sure that students can give them from their home itself. This might include an online exam. open book exam, or assignment based exam, adds the report. Universities will have to choose one of these ways to conduct the exam. The exam will also be conducted for fewer marks so as to ease the burden on the students.

The minister also said that universities had expressed inability to conduct the exam before the September 30 deadline set by the Commission. Thus, a proposal to extend the deadline will be sent to the UGC for approval.

University exams are generally conducted in the month of April and May. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, the exams had to be postponed. Maharashtra is the worst affected state in terms of the number of cases with more than 7.9 lakh cases and 24,500 deaths.