Nearly 2 lakh Delhi University students to appear for undergraduate, postgraduate online exams from today

New Delhi: Nearly two lakh final semester undergraduate and postgraduate students are expected to take the online open book exams in Delhi University that will commence from Monday. The examination branch officials held a meeting on Sunday with college principals and nodal officers to discuss the modalities of evaluation and results, DS Rawat, Dean (Examinations) said. “The meeting was held to discuss how to tackle the issues that arise. We want to start the evaluation process on Tuesday. Earlier, the process would start late. The papers will be held in two shifts - 9 am to 12 noon and 2 pm to 5 pm,” he said. The next day, officials will allot the examination sheets to teachers with a deadline to finish evaluating them. The principals will also be given a list of the teachers evaluating the sheets so that they can track the progress, he said. “The results usually take three months. For courses that have less number of students, the results can be finalised early,” he said. Rawat said that he also told the principals that they can give ‘confidential results’ to students in case they have to submit them to foreign universities for admission. “Usually, the last date for submission of results in universities is 31 July so in case some student needs the result, they can give us documentary evidence and write to us and we will give them the result,” he said. The official said that last time, there was a university that was not accepting the confidential result of a student. “The student informed us and I wrote a personal email with my credentials and the varsity subsequently accepted it,” he added. On Sunday night, students taking the exams will receive an email from Rawat with the guidelines of exams. Last year, during the first phase of the online open-book exams, students had complained about technical glitches in the submission of answer sheets. However, Rawat said that during the exams held in March this year, there were very few students who encountered technical glitches. In case of low internet connectivity or any unforeseen technical glitches etc, the student can submit their script beyond the specified time period with documentary evidence, he said. According to the official notification, the maximum time limit for the delayed submission is 60 minutes. “However, all such cases will be examined by the Review Committee and these answer sheets shall be evaluated based on the decision of the Review Committee. “The time of submission of answer sheets shall be recorded by the system. The delayed submissions of an answer sheet with the exact time of submission shall be sent to Review Committee,” according to DU’s rules. A section of students has been demanding the postponement of exams citing that some students are grappling with coronavirus infection in their families. However, Rawat said that they had not received any such representation till Sunday. Rawat said he had a word with principals of 28 colleges and they had said that a majority of the students were present during the practicals held last month. “Only two-three students were absent in each college,” he said. The exams were earlier postponed twice. They were scheduled to start from 15 May but were deferred to 1 June owing to the spike in coronavirus cases across the country. Later, the varsity had released a new notification saying final semester/ annual exams will commence from 7 June, instead of 1 June.