Final year/semester Maha varsity exams cancelled: Minister

The Maharashtra government has decided to cancel final year/semester university examinations, but candidates willing to appear for tests can inform their respective institutions in writing, state minister Uday Samant said on Friday.

According to an official statement, Samant said the examinations of students who have cleared previous semesters but have opted for tests will be held keeping in mind the spread of COVID-19 locally.

Students who have cleared all previous semesters but do not wish to appear for the final one will be passed based on their respective aggregate marks, the statement said.

Samant said the decision has been taken to end uncertainty in the minds of students and parents with regard to university examinations whose schedule was affected due to the outbreak.

"Yesterday, the meeting of state disaster management authority was held by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. The decision to cancel final year/semester university examinations was taken in the meeting in view of the health of the students given the increasing COVID-19 spread," Higher and Technical Education Minister Samant said, as per the statement.

He said students of non-professional (conventional) courses should inform their respective universities in case they wish to or don't want to face examinations, adding that those unwilling to appear for examinations will be given certificates.

Similar decision was taken with regard to examinations of professional courses (engineering, pharmacy, hotel management, architecture, etc) during the authority's meeting and requests will be made to the respective apex bodies of these courses for approval.

The decision on backlog and ATKT examinations will be taken within four days after discussing with all the vice chancellors under the leadership of Thackeray, Samant said.