The final year and undergraduate students at University of Delhi have appealed to the University Grants Commission (UGC), the higher education regulator, to conduct the final semester exams in May instead of July – as per the new UGC guidelines.
The delay, students say, would be detrimental to those who were supposed to start working from July this year.
“It [delay] is causing a lot of mental distress because a lot of MNCs will revoke job offers for those who will not be able to get their provisional degrees by July,” said a PG student on the condition of anonymity.
Yesterday, the UGC released exam details and the academic calendar for undergraduate, postgraduate, MPhil, PhD and intermediate students. According to the guidelines, the end semester exams for UG and PG students will be conducted in July.
“Universities may conduct Terminal/Intermediate Semester/Year examinations in offline/online mode, as per their Ordinances/Rules and Regulations, Scheme of Examinations, observing the guidelines of “social distancing” and keeping in view the support system available with them and ensuring fair opportunity to all students,” the guidelines said.
All classes in Delhi University were suspended in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The final year students are concerned about their uncertain future because several companies – which hired them early this year – may give preference to students from other colleges who have already written their exams.
“A lot of my batchmates, who got placed in national and international locations, told me that their organisations want the [provisional] degrees before letting students to work… A lot of companies have hired students from private colleges and those students will start working from July but we might lose our jobs. This is causing not only mental distress, but also financial distress for students who were expecting salaries from the month of April,” the MBA student added.
A lot of MNCs, students say, are being considerate, but companies which work with clients and operate on B2B businesses are not ready to take students onboard.
Students say that the UGC and the college administration should resolve the matter at the earliest because some companies have even started laying off their existing employees and there is a dearth of job offers already due to the pandemic.
“We will be the last ones they would want to hire,” said the student.
Featured image credit: PTI