NU offline exams in MCQ format from June 8

Nagpur: After a series of flip-flops and keeping lakhs of students on the tenterhooks for 24 days, the Nagpur University has finally announced that it would be conducting the summer examinations in offline mode from June 8, but in multiple-choice questions (MCQ) format.
“The papers would be conducted at students’ respective colleges (home centres), and they would be provided one and half hours to solve the questions. The examinees would be provided with 50 questions of which they need to solve 40. The marks would be provided on the correct answers out of 40 questions solved,” Board of Examinations and Evaluation (BOEE) director Prafulla Sable told TOI.
The director clarified that the students would not be provided with any question bank as instructed by the government, as NU would be conducting MCQ based exams. “The timetable would be made available within a couple of days. The examinees should regularly visit the university’s website for further updates,” he said.
TOI was the first to report that the NU exams would be held offline while quoting higher education minister Uday Samant, who was assured by vice chancellor Subhash Chaudhari in this regard. In a series of reports, the newspaper has also exposed NU's flip-flops on the exams issue and highlighted the students' grievances of appearing in offline exams.
The decision to hold offline exams was taken during NU Academic Council’s meeting on the issues on Friday, which was conducted online. Though the offline mode was a forgone conclusion, the MCQ based test was not instructed by the government, neither any of the universities have taken this step so far. It would be interesting to see whether the government allows NU to go ahead, as other universities conducting exams in regular format would be at disadvantage, as per the NU officials.
When asked why NU decided to opt for MCQ type exams, the exam director refused to comment stating that the decision was taken by the Academic Council, which is the highest statutory body of the university.
Immediately after the council’s meeting, Sable uploaded a video on social media, informing about the conduct of the examinations. “The decision for offline exams was taken as per the consensus reached between VCs of all state universities during their April 25 meeting convened by the State Higher and Technical Education Department. The exams would commence from June 8 for the undergraduate and June 15 for the postgraduate courses, as declared earlier, but in MCQ pattern,” he said.
A majority of students, who were waiting anxiously for the mode of exams, heaved a sigh of relief after NU’s announcement of offline exams but with MCQ pattern. They flooded social media with their messages and memes.
Most of them hailed the decision, but few questioned NU on why it wanted to go for offline mode, as they would be subjected to objective type questions, which they can solve from their homes. Some of them flayed NU for providing very less time for the preparations and not providing them the question bank, as assured by the government. They said it was not clear on whether they would be allowed to use their mobile phone or laptops, or NU would provide proper question papers and answer-sheets.
# Important takeaways from NU meet:
* Exams to be held offline based on MCQ pattern
* All affiliated colleges would be home centres
* Examinees to get 50 marks question paper
* They need to solve any 40 questions out of it
* Marks to be awarded on correct questions
* NU not to provide any question to students
* Timetable to be made available in couple of days
* All exams information to be available on website
* UG papers to begin from June 8, PG from June 15