Jadavpur University has announced that performance in previous semesters and internal assessments of the current semester will be factored in to assess final-year engineering and arts students.

The engineering students will be evaluated based on a 30:70 model. An official said 30 per cent of the assessment would be based on the best aggregate marks of all the last semesters of each candidate and 70 per cent on home assignments or any other assignment done through distance mode.

The respective department will decide the mode of conducting the evaluation remotely. “It is proposed that at least 24 hours will be given to each candidate for the submission of an assignment under this mode,” said the official.

Projects can also be a part of the internal assessment. If a student faces an issue in sending the assignment via email or WhatsApp because of poor connectivity, the university will send its staff to the candidate’s home to collect it.

Two options have been proposed for the end-semester examinations for final-year undergraduate and post- graduate students of the arts faculty.

One is that the department gives 20 marks for internal assessments based on the best aggregate marks of all the previous semesters and 30 marks for the end-semester from internal assessments done in the final semester or any other assignment done through distance mode.

The other option is that the internal assessment of 20 marks be taken from assignments done either in class or at home and 30 marks for the end-semester exam be taken from the best aggregate marks of all the previous semesters.

“The departments will have the freedom to choose any one of these two modes. The head of the department will send the option to be adopted on the basis of a statement that it is being done through consultation with departmental colleagues,” said Chiranjib Bhattacharjee, a pro-vice-chancellor.

A notice issued to the departments after a meeting of the exam board held on June 8, says: “In view of the present pandemic the evaluations of final semester of the final year undergraduate and postgraduate courses, including the evening courses, will be based on non-contact distant mode”.

Details of assessment in physical education, library science and BEd — for which the components will vary — and all other papers have been uploaded on the university’s website www.jaduniv.edu.in.

The last date for submission of assignments for internal assessment will be determined by the respective departments, but not later than July 15, says the notice.

The format was decided factoring in that pen-and-paper tests cannot be held at a time when the spread of the coronavirus is peaking, an official said. Online assessment is not feasible because a large number of students do not have access to computers or live in remote villages with limited connectivity further weakened by the cyclone.

“An option will be made available for submission and evaluation of dissertations in postgraduate engineering and technology courses,” he said.

For undergraduate evening courses, a separate notification will be issued later.