Mumbai University Exams: A timeline of everything that happened in past two months

Mumbai University has been juggling between cancellation of exams and non-cancellation of exams since a while now. Students are anxious about the decisions for final year examinations. Twitter is abuzz with questions regarding the final decision on the assessments so that students have time to plan ahead. Even though most students are weighing in on the decision made by CMO of Maharashtra, the governor is still at loggerheads with the CMO. Here is a brief timeline of everything that led to what it is-

The lockdown begins 

• On March 24, the prime minister of India declared a national lockdown on the wake of the coronavirus pandemic that was grappling the nations. The Ministry of Home Affairs pushed all examinations and tests to a later date.

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• On April 1, Mumbai University announced that the exams will be pushed to a further date and university will be on a leave from April 1 to April 14. At this point, the exams were to be conducted after the first lockdown.
• On April 17, the lockdown was extended until May 3 as the coronavirus positive cases kept rising. Mumbai University also pushed the exams ahead for a further date. 

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• On April 30, the University Grants Commission gave specific guidelines to all the universities under its beak. The University further explained how examinations and assessments can be carried during the times of coronavirus in the country. UGC also gave a date for all universities to conduct exams between July 1 to July 15.

First cancellation of exams 

• On May 8, Mumbai University revealed that all students, except for final year students will not be appearing for exams. Students will be marked on an average of past semester’s performance and internal examinations. Final year exams would be conducted between July 1 to July 30.
• On May 14, most students of the final year started a petition to cancel exams. Thousands signed as the number of coronavirus cases kept rising and Mumbai became the worst-hit city in India due to the coronavirus situation.

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• On May 19, Maharashtra Student Union’s head mentioned in writing to the CM and state education minister regarding the cancellation of exams. Uday Samant, in turn, wrote to the UGC to give average marks and cancel exams.
• On May 21, many Universities in Maharashtra were contemplating conducting the exams in July. Mumbai University also thought in the direction, however, students continued to oppose through Twiter and petitions.

Cancellation of final year exams 

• On May 31, the state authorities conducted a meeting owing to the alarming numbers of the coronavirus cases in the city. CMO’s overview led to the decision of cancellation of the exams.
• On June 1, the political party ABVP urged for a reversal of the decision of Mumbai University's exam cancellation.
• On June 3, Bhagat Singh Koshiyari rejected the exam cancellation decision calling it ‘violation of Public Universities Act’. After this, there were still possibilities for conducting exams.
• On June 4, the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences urged clarity over the conducting of exams. The governor gave rights to the university to conduct the exams of all terminal, final year students.

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