Covid effect: Central University of Punjab gives students option to choose exam dates

TEST SLOTS WILL BE ALLOCATED WHERE STUDENTS CAN ENROL THEMSELVES ON FIRST-COME-FIRSTSERVED BASIS

BATHINDA : Central University of Punjab (CUP), Bathinda, will give students the option to appear in examinations on dates of their choice.

Vice-chancellor RK Kohli said on Friday that according to the University Grants Commission guidelines, the CUP will hold semester exams from July 6 with a novel initiative to reduce stress on students.

He said the test slots will be allocated where students can enrol themselves on firstcome-first-serve basis.

Kohli said there will be four exam schedules in a day, including on weekends, for the convenience of students.

“The university will only release the examination schedule and students will have the flexibility to choose dates to write their tests. A total 140 students can appear for the exam in one slot while strictly following the medical protocol in view of the coronavirus outbreak,” Kohli said.

The vice-chancellor said a dry run of the novel initiative was tested successfully earlier this year. The practice to help students manage examrelated stress will be a regular feature.

CUP sources said the exam system will also benefit students in a situation when dates of UGC entrance tests and other exams clash with the university’s academic schedules.

Faculty members say as it is students are under stress due to the prolonged lockdown caused by the pandemic, so the university’s initiative is a positive reform.

“If a student wishes, the CUP will allow her or him to take more than one or even all four exams on a single day. To handle the possibility of repetition of question papers, the university has developed an automated paper setter,” the V-C said.

“An in-house exam system will take care of generating separate question papers of the same subject taken on different days,” he added.