Mumbai University releases new dates for exam, MHT-CET hit at 5 centres – Times of India

MUMBAI: Final-year exams of more than 200 city colleges affiliated to Mumbai University and MHT-CET exams at five centres were disrupted due to the massive power outage on Monday morning. Several other colleges managed to conduct the exams by giving extra time to students.

Due to the pandemic, exams across Mumbai University are being taken online in the MCQ (multiple choice question) format for the first time. The power outage led to confusion at several centres in the morning hours. All the affected exams were postponed to a later date for students’ convenience.

A notice issued by K C College on Monday morning said undergraduate and postgraduate exams have been rescheduled to October 18 due to the power breakdown as the extent and time of the outage could not be assessed. Exams at Rizvi and St Andrew’s colleges were also rescheduled to October 15.

Colleges did not wish to disrupt other ongoing exams and therefore have rescheduled the papers towards the end of all their other exams.

At least 100 arts, science and commerce colleges in 10 clusters had to postpone the exams, but 18,950 students from 32 other clusters managed to give it successfully. All the 10 engineering college clusters and three clusters of pharmacy colleges had to postpone their exams to October 14 and 15, respectively. “Fewer engineering students were affected, as only ATKT exams were scheduled on Monday. The colleges which have postponed the exams will soon declare fresh dates,” said an MU spokesperson.

A student who was appearing for the MCom exam said that he got the question paper on his email and he managed to attempt it. “There was confusion in the morning, as some could not access the paper, and some did not have internet connection. And there was no official communication from the college,” said another student.

One student said while their college has postponed the exam, he could successfully attempt it.

The state’s CET cell, in a notification, said exams at five centres were disrupted in the morning session. The exam at the five centres—including three colleges in Thakur Complex, Don Bosco Centre of Learning and Babasaheb Gawde Institute of Technology —have been postponed to a date on or before October 20. Students have been asked to check the schedule on the CET website.

Moreover, to safeguard the interests of candidates, if the CET cell receives requests from candidates whose PCM exam was scheduled in the second session (2.30pm to 5.30pm) but could not reach their test centres and hence could not appear for the test, the state CET cell would decide about the course of action, in the best interest of such candidates. The concerned candidates would be informed of the decision of the CET cell.