With the Supreme Court ruling that final semester examinations must be conducted for college students across the country, Tamil Nadu’s Anna University has now confirmed the same and announced that exams will be held as per University Grants Commission’s (UGC) guidelines. Details on the dates of the examinations are expected to be made public soon.
Earlier, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami had announced that examinations for college students, except those in their final semesters, have been cancelled.
On August 3, Anna University had announced that end-semester exams for final year students will be conducted online. It had also added that students with no access to internet facilities can opt to take the exam offline at a later date. According to latest reports, Anna University is yet to obtain necessary permissions from the state government to conduct exams online and so a final confirmation on this is yet to come. Details on how the exams will be conducted and issuing of admit cards is expected to be shared soon.
According to a report in Times of India, the tests will have a duration of one-hour and will be in multiple-choice format. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool, which will record the movements of the students and other parameters like screen-time and audio usage, will be used to detect malpractices.
The SC’s ruling comes with the provision that the states have power under Disaster Management Act to order the postponement of exams in view of the pandemic. Under such circumstances, the states can file an application before the UGC seeking to extend the September 30 deadline that it had announced on July 6.
Tamil Nadu was among that states that appealed to UGC for an extension of this deadline. Chief Minister Palaniswami had said that many college and hostel buildings were converted into Covid Care Centres and quarantine centres in the state and so it may not be able to hold final exams within the said date. His letter came just a day after UGC had ordered all the universities to complete their final year exams by September 30.