Bhubaneswar, May 2: A section of Utkal University students is worried over the rescheduling of their semester exams, as it will hamper their chances of joining other universities for further studies.

“While exams for most departments will come to an end by mid-May, some of us in other departments, including English, public administration and journalism will have to appear for our papers in July. Delay in holding exams will lead to a corresponding delay in publication of results. This might jeopardise our chances of admission into MPhil courses in other universities,” said a second-year postgraduation student of English.

According to the university rules, the semester exams should get over before the summer break.

“However, there are many students, who convinced our department teachers to postpone it to July so that they can sit for the competitive tests in between and then appear for the university exams,” said Samapika Nayak, a first-year student of public administration.

“When other departments will be beginning their new session in July, we will be cramming our lessons from the previous session and writing exams. This delay might spill over to the next year,” she said.

Samapika’s classmate Sunita Patnaik said quite a few students were in favour of exams being postponed, as they were reluctant to give up their hostel seats while the competitive tests were on.

University rules say students have to vacate their hostels within a week of completion of their second-year exams. The test season began last weekend and will continue till July 1. The tests for Union Public Service Commission, Service Selection Board, National Eligibility Test and for various banks are all scheduled for the next two months.

“Therefore, no one is interested to give up one’s hostel seat during this crucial period,” said a university lecturer, on the condition of anonymity.

Examination controller S.K. Das said the responsibility of chalking out the exam schedule lies with the chairman of PG Council and individual departments.

“As far as my role is concerned, I only implement the schedule given by the departments,” said Das.

Many students said the responsibility of conducting semester exams should remain with the examination controller of the university.

“There is no uniformity in holding exams since these decisions are taken by respective department heads. If the authorities allow students to stay in the hostel till mid-July, then they do not need to make a farce and pester teachers to postpone the exams,” said a student.

President of the university students’ union Tanmaya Swain said though the disparity in conducting exams has been streamlined to a great extent this year, there is an urgent need to fix an academic calendar for all departments.

“Besides, the examination section must be given complete autonomy to take decisions in matters pertaining to exams,” he said.