Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) will hold offline, pen and paper examinations from August 24 to 30, Vice-Chancellor Karisiddappa announced in Belagavi on Friday.
The examination is only for the current terminal semester which is the 8th semester. There will be no examination for new students of 2nd, 4th and 6th semesters now. They will be given an automatic extension and grades based on internal marks, said the VC.
However, the university will allow the 8th semester students, who may have failed in some subjects in earlier semesters, to attempt examinations of their earlier semesters, in a different set of examinations. The timetable for those backlog examinations will be announced soon.
College-level exams
There will be three-hour examinations with open choice. They will be college-level examinations with all examiners from the same college, he said. The college principal, who is the chief superintendent of the examination, will decide on the examiners and the timetable, Dr. Karisidappa said, in a Facebook live session to students and parents on Friday.
University Public Relations Officer Harish Bendigeri said the chat had reached over 70,000 persons, including students and parents.
A look at the comments revealed that a majority of students opposed the examination plans, owing to the COVID-19 scare or due to the travel restrictions between States and districts.
However, the VC said that these were as per the special regulations issued by the UGC for all graduate and postgraduate courses. The colleges need not approach the university’s board of examinations for approval, he said. Project viva voce and course work examinations will be held from August 17 to 24. PG examinations will be held from August 25, to avoid a clash with the KPSC examinations.
COVID-19 SOP and other standard practices will be followed in the conduct of examinations. Those who cannot appear for the examinations, can appear for the immediate next ones, the VC said. “Examinations for terminal semesters, for UG and PG students will be held first and then the reducing semesters will be held next. That will be treated as the first attempt,” he said. They will not be penalised for not taking the examination now, according to him. Backlog examinations for terminal semester students will be suitably scheduled, the VC said.
Hostels to be opened
From August 1, all hostels will be opened. Even students who are staying off campus can seek temporary accommodation in hostels till the end of examinations, he said.
For students coming from outside the country or from high-risk areas, there is no institutional quarantine. They will be referred to home quarantine for 14 days, said Dr. Karisiddappa.
All teachers, whether they have examination duty or not, will be expected to be on campus during the examinations. A COVID-19 cell will be created in each college that will have senior teachers and administrators, the VC said. The colleges were asked to complete internal assessment by May 31. The internal marks are ready and VTU will collect that data and award marks, he said.
Project submission
Students can submit project reports in the form of emailed PDF documents or Compact Discs. If the fabrication for the projects was not ready, students can use synthetic data to prepare the final report. Fabrication videos can be shot and shown to the teachers, the VC said.
Reports will be accepted even if they complete their projects based on secondary data, without going to workshop or not doing fabrication and without physical handling of material.
What is open choice?
Earlier, the students could attempt only some questions from different units in the syllabus, and attempt five out of 10 questions. But now, they can attempt five out of 10 questions from any unit. This is to introduce flexibility, said registrar A.S. Deshpande.
