Following the ongoing protest by a large number of students of Allahabad University since last month over the issue of conducting the final exams offline and not online, as decided by the varsity authorities, the AU administration has decided that all the students of the second year will be promoted to the third year, the Times of India reported. The exams of the final year of undergraduate courses will be conducted online. Earlier, when the AU administration gave its final nod that the final exams would be conducted offline only, the campus witnessed massive protests on March 25.
A large number of students protested at the Vice-Chancellor’s office for hours to press for their demand for holding the exams in online mode. “In view of the protest against the decision given by the high-power committee, some students protested today and sprinkled kerosene on themselves. In view of this unfortunate situation, it has been decided in an urgent meeting of the university administration under the chairmanship of Vice-Chancellor Prof Sangita Srivastava, on the request of the district administration to reconsider that all the students of the second year of graduation will be promoted and the examination of the students of the third year will be taken in the online mode, the details of which will be given later,” said public relation officer of AU, Prof Jaya Kapoor.
The unrest on the campus started last month on the issue of holding final exams offline. AU authorities have decided that the final exams of undergraduate and postgraduate courses will be held offline. Following the decision of the varsity authorities, the Arts faculty of AU witnessed a heavy protest by the group of students which was led by student leaders.
They were demanding that since the classes throughout the present academic session were held online, the exams should also be held online and not offline, as decided by AU. After the protest, which lasted around 20 days, the AU authorities constituted a high-powered committee to look into the matter. The committee then invited suggestions from the students over the issue of whether they want to give the exams online or offline. The last date of giving the suggestions was March 10.
After getting the feedback from the students, the committee gave its recommendations to the VC, Prof Sangita Srivastava and AU decided that the exams will be held in offline. As soon as the decision was made public, a large number of students arrived at the VC's office located in the Arts faculty and started protesting. The entire Arts campus was fortified with heavy deployment of the police force which included senior officials of the district police, PAC jawans and even a fire brigade.