Stop discriminating between courses: students of Mumbai University demand online exams for professional courses

The announcement from the Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant that all universities will now conduct their exams offline notwithstanding, students of professional courses at the Mumbai University are adamant about sustaining their struggle for online exams. 

The announcement was made by the minister after students of professional courses claimed that it was unfair that traditional courses such as commerce, arts and science had their exams happening online, whereas students of professional courses were being asked to write their exams, which begin in May, in the physical mode. The agitation by the students had intensified when Nagpur University also announced that they will be conducting the exams online.

"We have met with the Registrar, Vice-Chancellor and Controller of Exams of Mumbai University, and with the Technical Education Minister to voice our concerns. However, the reasoning that they gave us for conducting the exams for professional courses offline was that professional courses have more value. The value of a course cannot be judged this way. It is discriminatory and unfair in every way, and it puts us at a disadvantage against our peers in the traditional courses who are writing their exams online, when we apply for higher education," says a student of Computer Engineering from Mumbai University on the condition of anonymity. He adds that the announcement to conduct all exams offline now has little effect on these courses since their online exams are underway already.

They also cite the concerns of having to shift cities to write the exams at a time when COVID-19 cases are on the rise —  a fear that was also shared by students demanding online Open Book Exams at Delhi University. 

"This issue is not restricted to Mumbai University. The students of Maharashtra, from Pune University, Amravati University, Jalgaon University and Mumbai University are coming together to demand online exams. It is impossible to perform well in our exams offline at such short notice," says another student from Mumbai University. 

In their meeting with Education Minister Samant, the students were told that the MU will provide questions banks for the exam. However, the notice said that respective colleges will share question banks with their students. "This is completely pointless since the question paper is set only by the university itself. It provides no relief to the students," he adds.