Manipal Institute of Technology, an institute under Manipal Academy of Higher Education in Karnataka’s Udupi district on Sunday cancelled the end semester examination for students in II/ IV/VI Semester Bachelor of Technology and II Semester Master of Technology and Master of Computer Applications.
No such announcements have been made by the other institutions affiliated to Manipal University like Manipal School of Communication and Kasturba Medical College.
In a circular, the Director of the institute said that the procedure for prorating the marks for the final semester examination would be communicated on receiving the University guidelines.
“This notice overrides the decisions made on the conduct of sessional tests, end semester examinations, promotion criteria and branch change criteria mentioned in the earlier Circular dated 5th June, 2020,” the circular stated
In another significant development, the institute also accepted the demand of the students to not conduct the proposed online examinations for the second sessional test on the controversial PEXA (Paperless Examinations Advantage) Lite platform. Instead the same exams will be conducted using Microsoft Teams.
These exams which were scheduled to start from June 8 will now start on June 10 for other colleges under the University except for the ones mentioned above. The revised schedule will be communicated shortly, the circular said.
TNM had earlier reported how the PEXA Lite software was posing a cyber security risk. Many students found the software was diagnosed as a trojan by the Windows firewall.
Students speaking to TNM said that while the first version of PEXA was introduced to students in 2016 and was used by the students, the current version which can be downloaded by students at their personal computers at their home was riddled with issues.
Other than the cybersecurity angle, the software was not compatible with Android or Mac operating systems.
Further for the students, who are not able to write the sessional test II due to valid reasons, the circular said that they would have to write to the head of the department (for students other than of 1st year) and to Associate Director Academics (for first year students) regarding their inability to do so.
Re-examination for the students who missed Sessional Test I and the Sessional Test II will be announced at a later date.