PUNE: The University of Pune's online exam plan for the first-year engineering (FE) degree course will roll out as declared earlier from the academic year 2012-13.
Officiating vice-chancellor Sanjay Chahande, who presided over the UoP's senate on Saturday, partially conceded the demand made by a section of teachers to refer the FE online plan to the varsity's exam reforms committee, but expressed his inability to stay the plan for 2012-13.
The plan refers to increasing the online exam component in the engineering degree course by covering all the 10 subjects, instead of the existing three subjects, at the FE level.
TOI, in its issue dated November 27, 2011, was first to report the UoP's online engineering exam plan, which is part of a bigger exam reforms exercise being pursued by the university.
Chahande's statement came after senior senate member Nandkumar Nikam brought to the senate members' notice that the plan had already been announced, after having gone through an elaborate decision-making process, including clearances by the engineering faculty and the academic council.
"Any change now will require the mandatory 180 days notice period as provided under the Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994," Nikam said during a 30-minute animated debate after senate member Shridhar Deo moved an adjournment motion. Deo said the plan was being pushed through in haste and was against the interest of students.
Deo argued that the skill sets of engineering students cannot be evaluated on the basis of online exams featuring multiplechoice questions, which are more suited to entrance tests. However, UoP engineering faculty dean G K Kharate put up a strong defence by pointing out that the move had been discussed and cleared by the 55-member faculty and the academic council.
Kharate clarified that the online plan was confined to the first and second year of engineering studies, which deal with basic sciences and engineering concepts. There was no move yet to extend the same to the third and final year, where the applications and design part of studies gets stronger.
Earlier, Chahande said that the subject of the adjournment motion can barely be discussed by the senate considering the complex academic issues involved. "The issue needs to be placed before a suitable forum like the board of studies or academic council," he said.
While the members seemed divided over the issue, Deo took a stance t hat he wouldn't withdraw the adjournment motion unless assured that the matter was referred to the exam reforms committee and the FE online plan is stayed with immediate effect. Eventually, he withdrew the motion after the VC assured that the matter would be referred to the reforms panel.
For the last few years, the UoP has been conducting online tests of 50 marks each for three of the ten subjects - fundamentals of programming language, engineering mechanics and basic electronics - at the end of each semester at the FE level. The remaining seven exams are conducted in the conventional written mode.
Last year, the faculty of engineering mooted a proposal that envisages a 25-mark online test, to be conducted twice in the first two months of each semester at the FE level. Each of these online tests will cover two chapters of all the 10 subjects and will be followed by a 50-mark written test in the third month of the semester.
The move is aimed at ensuring that engineering students start with their studies from the first day of joining the degree course and that they go through a continuous evaluation process, which provides a real gauge of the knowledge acquired by them.
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