EFLU: No change in academic calendar; students upset

Hyderabad: In the wake of a nation-wide lockdown due to Coronavirus, the students’ body of English and Foreign Language University (EFLU) in Hyderabad has demanded an immediate reschedule of the exams to the last week of May 2020. The request comes as the varsity administration has decided to go ahead with its decision to stick to the existing academic calendar and conduct exams.

The students also demanded an extension of the deadline for submission of dissertation, and sought alternative arrangements for the physically disabled students and those who don’t have access to laptops to take online exams.

On 9th April, 2020, the vice-chancellor of the university conducted an academic council meeting after which it was decided that the end semester exams will be conducted in May 2020. The mode of examination would be online in the form of open book exams, take home assignments or term papers. No information regarding this was uploaded online by the university and the students came to know about it only through the newspaper reports.

A member of the student’s council under condition of anonymity told NewsMeter, “The students’ council had raised several concerns regarding the admin’s decision to go with the existing academic calendar. We demanded an extension of the exam date and an extension of the deadline for submission of dissertations as students were not able to access resources for their research work. Professors have been asking them to submit assignments to get attendance along with giving them internal assignments. The council sought complete waiver of attendance for the ongoing semester as done by university of Hyderabad and other central varsities. The council also aired concerns of PhD scholars with regard to their submissions mentioned by the council.”

Despite the student council’s request for an extension for the semester, the administration released a notice on 12th April 2020. The notice declared that the semester exams will be conducted online from 5th-13th May 2020 while the classes will end by 29th April 2020.

“We had several demands. A few of them like the extension of the submission date for PhD students have been accepted. However, the road map is not clear yet. No written statement has been received so far regarding any of our demands,” the council member said.