SPPU’s own company may conduct first semester exams

PUNE: Senior officials of Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) have said that the first semester examinations will be conducted by SPPU EduTech Foundation (SEF), a Section 8 company formed and fully owned by the varsity. The confirmation ends weeks of speculations over who would conduct the exams.

While a formal statement from SPPU is yet to be released, officials said that the company may either conduct the exam on its own or in collaboration with the private agency that had conducted the first online exam last year.

“The SEF has successfully conducted exams for 6,000 students of all departments within the campus last year. We got it tested for college-level examinations too, where about 10,000 students appeared. Hence, we think the company is ready to scale it up and shoulder the responsibility of conducting the examination for all students. The proposal will, however, undergo scrutiny by the Board of Examination and other bodies before being adopted,” said an official. The move is expected to cut the spending on a private agency as well as the university’s dependency on an outside agency, the official added.

An SEF official confirmed that there is a chance the foundation may conduct the exams. “It has been two years since the company was formed and we have successfully conducted examinations for department students last year. Talks are on between the company and SPPU and we are expecting an official decision on the subject soon. The company was established to cater to the university’s technology requirements in the education and allied sectors. The examination is also a major aspect of the same. However, the exam is a sensitive topic and so until both sides are completely ready, saying anything would not be correct,” said the official.

Talks are also on about the possibility of conducting semester I and II exams together so that students do not have to go through the process twice. On the other hand, this would rob students of a precious chance to appear for and clear their first-semester backlog subjects in the second semester.

“Many colleges have not even completed the syllabus, hence we are thinking of holding the term-end examination together. For backlog exams, we could conduct the tests in about 30 days so that students do not lose out on a year,” added another SPPU official.