VTU Postpones Semester Exams for Around 60,000 Students

In a mourning gesture following the demise of the Minister for Cooperation H S Mahadeva Prasad,
the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Belagavi has postponed its semester exams that were earlier scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

The decision has impacted around 60,000 students across all semesters, causing lots of inconvenience to the students. But it came only after the state government declaring three days of mourning and government holiday on Tuesday. VTU was forced to postpone the exams scheduled for Tuesday evening and Wednesday.

However, students are upset that their preparation has not ended due to the postponing of the dates. They even went a step ahead in questioning the need for not conducting exams, despite the presence of an easy online delivery method for question papers. "The university has an online question paper delivery system and the question of transportation does not arise. What was the need to postpone the exams?" asked a student.

Giving a clarification for the issue raised, the university authorities justified saying that they had to put off Wednesday's schedule too as a holiday has been declared in Chamarajnagar district which has three engineering colleges.

Vice-chancellor Dr Karisiddappa said, " Three engineering colleges are located in Chamarajanagar district, the home district of the deceased minister. Since the district administration had announced a holiday for all educational institutions in the district on account of the last rites of Mahadeva Prasad on Wednesday, VTU postponed the examinations scheduled for the day."

Since the same question paper is issued to all engineering colleges across the state, the university cannot have the same examination on two different dates, he said.

Fresh dates will be announced on Wednesday for the papers that have been put off. "The remainder of the schedule will be the same," he added.

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