UGC Vs Students: Why Mandatory Final-Sem Exams Have Sparked a Row?

<div>Exams have become a source of anxiety, stress and confusion for final year college students in India.</div> <div><br> </div> <div>Weeks after #StudentsLivesMatter trended on Twitter, over 30 students from across the country including a COVID+ student moved the Supreme Court against the guidelines by the University Grants Commission (UGC) that mandated the conducting of the final semester or final year examinations by 30 September.</div> <div><br> </div> <div>How do we conduct exams without risking exposure? How do we wrap the academic year without exams when educational institutions have been for 5 months? The pandemic has presented these challenges before academic institutions, students, their parents and teachers. Initially several states had decided to cancel the final-year exams in light of the pandemic, but the UGC guidelines from 7 July that directed an offline-online hybrid mode of exams for final years may force colleges to revisit that decision.</div> <div><br> </div> <div>But is it a sound decision to make at such a time where students' careers are hanging by a thread? Could there have been an alternative solution to this?</div> <div> <br> <strong>Producer and Host: </strong>Shorbori Purkayastha<br> <strong>Guests:<br> </strong>Advocate Anubha Sahai, India Wide Parents Association, </div> <div>Debaditya Bhattacharya, Assistant Professor of English, Kazi Nazrul University </div> <div> <strong>Editor:</strong> Shelly Walia<br> <br> </div> <div> <strong>Music:</strong> Big Bang Fuzz<br> <br> <strong>Listen to The Big Story podcast on:</strong> </div> <div><br> </div> <div>Apple: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=https%3A%2F%2Fapple.co%2F2AYdLIl&amp;redir_token=G9sQMbbppKv-LEFD29gDyTmPMzt8MTU3MTM4MDU5NkAxNTcxMjk0MTk2&amp;v=xkpX1V6aUFo&amp;event=video_description">https://apple.co/2AYdLIl</a> </div> <div>Saavn: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2oix78C&amp;redir_token=G9sQMbbppKv-LEFD29gDyTmPMzt8MTU3MTM4MDU5NkAxNTcxMjk0MTk2&amp;v=x