Calcutta University will allow its affiliated colleges to conduct exams for minor papers at their respective institutions starting with the undergraduate examinations in June, vice-chancellor Ashutosh Ghosh said last week.
Earlier minor papers that an honours student has to pursue were called pass papers.
The varsity’s syndicate approved the decision at its meeting on February 12 to increase the number of class days and publish the results on time, the VC said.
The examinations for the honours paper will continue to be held at “away centres”.
Earlier, students had to travel to another college (away) to write even the minor papers and teachers from a different college assessed their answer scripts. “The scripts of the minor papers came to the university, which then had to be distributed to another college. The semester’s extended duration caused by away-centre examinations for the minor papers was cutting into teaching days and delaying the publication of the results,” the VC told Metro.
“Starting June, the examinations on the minor papers will be held at home centres. This will increase the class days and ensure faster publication of results,” said Ghosh.
A proposal that was taken up at a syndicate meeting on December 31 was approved at the February 12 syndicate meeting. To ensure transparency, the office of the university’s controller of examinations will send teams to oversee the conduct of the exams and the evaluation process.
The VC said both exercises will be held “under the watch of the university administration”.
The examinations for the third semester (odd-semester), which will start on March 24, will be held under the existing practice.
The decreasing number of class days has been a matter of concern for CU.
This newspaper reported on February 5 that the university was forced to defer the third-semester undergraduate examinations because students and teachers complained that they had not had enough time to complete the syllabus.
The exams were initially scheduled to start on February 23. It had to be pushed back by more than a month.
A section of students from across colleges demonstrated on the CU’s College Street campus early in February, demanding that the examinations be deferred.
Some members of the CU syndicate who are principals of government and government-aided colleges also supported the demand raised by the protesting students.
Lady Brabourne College principal Siuli Sarkar said classes for the third semester began only in December, after the completion of the second-semester examinations in November.
“So the students had very little time.”