Already promoted, but 3rd & 5th-semester Calcutta University students to be evaluated before December 23 – Times of India

KOLKATA: Undergraduate students at Calcutta University, who had been promoted to the third and fifth semesters without having to appear for exams due to the pandemic, will now be evaluated through internal assessments before December 23. CU on Friday told the affiliated colleges that they would follow the UGC guideline issued in April, where it was stated that 50% weightage of the evaluation of intermediate semester students should be based on internal assessment and the rest 50% on their performance in the previous semester.
“Due to lockdown in June, CU could not hold exams for the second and fourth semesters and those students were promoted to the next semesters automatically. Now, we will hold internal assessments between November 23 and December 23. The scores will be calculated based on that exam as well as their performance in the previous semester,” said Lady Brabourne College principal Siuli Sarkar. “Thus, for those who are currently in the third semester, their internal evaluation will be done on the syllabus taught in the second semester and those in the fifth semester, will be internally evaluated on their fourth-semester syllabus.”
Fifty percent weightage based on their performance in the earlier semester, will be from the first semester for third-semester students and third semester for the present fifth-semester students. “If a candidate has secured 60 out of 100 in a paper, then 30 marks will be awarded under the column, marked for 50% previous semester weightage,” said another college principal.
Surendranath College principal Indranil Kar said the format of internal examinations should not vary among colleges. “We expect CU authorities to inform us about a uniform format for the internal assessment. Otherwise, some colleges may hold viva voce, some will evaluate students on projects, while some others will conduct written exams,” Kar said. Some principals, however, remained confused if a component within the internal assessment could be accorded to the students’ attendance, for which UGC permitted full marks.
The decision has taken the students by surprise. “We were not prepared to run a revision of the earlier-semester syllabus within such a short time, while the current classes are going on,” said Papri Ghosh, a student at Maharaja Manindra Chandra College. Another student said as 50% weightage would be awarded from the previous semester, several of her batchmates were unhappy with the score secured in the first semester, for which they would have demanded a review.