UGC Final Year Exams: Industry leaders call it "forward looking and an insightful verdict"

Supreme Court verdict on Final year examinations 2020 is finally here. The apex court has ruled that while the States can cancel the examinations under the Disaster Management Act. But, they cannot promote students without degrees. The states can, in turn, approach UGC to get an extension of the deadlines. Thus, the Apex Court has upheld the UGC Guidelines.

There were multiple petitions in the Supreme Court. One of the petition asked for UGC Guidelines to quash the exams. On the other hand, Yuva Sena Chief Aditya Thackeray challenged the UGC's decision to conduct the examination. Further, the Maharashtra State Government had ordered to cancel the exams. Under, the Disaster Management Act, states have precedence over UGC. In simple words, States can cancel the examinations, hence Maharashtra University can cancel the UGC Exams.

No Degrees Without Exam

On the matter, however, to grant the degrees without conducting final year examinations, the apex court has denied the request. It states that Universities can not grant degrees without the examinations. The state governments can, however, reach out to UGC to extend the deadline of September 30, if the situation is not conducive to conduct the examination.

Further, many industry leaders support this move. Mr. Shantanu Rooj, Founder & CEO, Schoolguru Eduserve said that the verdict is "forward-looking and insightful and protects the interest of the students!"

He said, "Getting a degree without examinations, may have given some students an easy way out. But it would have certainly caused long term damage to the credibility of their degrees. In fact, it was likely to spoil their careers, just in case, employers decided to filter out resumes of candidates passing out in 2020."

"On the other side, universities, who have not prepared themselves, would find it challenging to meet the guidelines. Several Universities hoped and prayed for the examinations getting canceled. But hope is never a strategy. Universities will need to quickly adopt a blended model of examinations primarily using digital infrastructure, and without compromising the health of students and faculties. Today, there are several service providers who offer multi-device, multi-lingual, secure, scalable, and reliable examination platforms. Universities should explore this alternative," he added.

Supreme Court gives flexibility to the Universities

Neeti Sharma, SVP, TeamLease states, "The supreme court verdict mandating final examinations is a positive move. It will ensure that lakhs of students don’t miss out on a year. Given the current pandemic situation, it is good that SC has allowed flexibility to conduct exams. The ideal way forward would be to optimally use online platforms for conducting examinations and virtual meetings for vivas.

"A major task here for colleges would be to enable both educators and students to quickly and seamlessly transition to these digital platforms,” she added.

Shantanu also said, "Online examinations have matured to handle many formats of assessments, provide credibility, maintain the integrity and give flexibility to the students and the institutions. The top court has however been generous in allowing universities to approach the regulator with an extension of time so that they can prepare for the activity.”

While the current circumstances may not be advisable to look at conventional systems of assessment, UGC can be more flexible and adapt or accommodate online or virtual platforms for evaluations.