STRESS-BUSTER Central university to give option to students to pick exam dates

The novel plan will be tested in upcoming May exam before adopting it as regular feature

Students of Central University of Punjab (CUP) here will soon have an option to appear in examinations on the days of their preference.

Registrar Kanwal Pal Mundra told HT that as per the proposal, the university will only release examination schedule and students will have the flexibility to choose dates to write their tests.

He said the novel plan will be tested for the first time in the forthcoming semester examination in May to assess its shortcomings before adopting it as a regular feature.

The brainchild of vice-chancellor Prof RK Kohli, the proposal is being introduced to help students manage examination-related stress.

The proposed system will also benefit students in a situation when dates of University Grants Commission (UGC) entrance tests and other exams clash with university’s academic schedules, said Mundra, who also holds the charge of the controller of examination (CoE).

“If a student wishes, we can allow her or him to take more than one or even all exams on a single day,” he adds.

To handle the possibility of repetition of question papers, the university is relying upon an automated paper setter.

“Software is being developed by our in-house team to have a smooth examination system. It will take care of generating separate question papers of the same subject taken on different days. The proposed system will be studied for improvements,” he said.

Faculty members say as a section of students are subjected to stress caused by the conventional examination system, the university’s initiative is a positive reform to boost the capability of students.

SPEEDY PAPER CHECKING

Mundra said the university had also introduced an organised examination system from the last semester that enables it to declare results within a record period of three days of completion of examinations.

The CUP, established in 2009, has about 1,500 students enrolled in 42 different postgraduate programmes.