On account of the ongoing Covid crisis, Binod Bihari Mahto Koylanchal University (BBMKU), Dhanbad on Thursday decided to promote the undergraduate and post-graduate students of all semesters except the final semester for which the examination was pending.

The decision to promote the students in this manner was taken during a meeting of the examination board held under the chairmanship of Vice Chancellor Anjani Kumar Srivastava during which Registrar, Colonel (Retd) MK Singh, examination controller Satyajit Kumar Singh and all deans and heads of different departments were present.

Dhanbad is one of the worst-affected districts in the state.

Talking to The Telegraph Online on Thursday, Srivastava said, "We will promote the students for the next semester in view of the increased Covid infection and high risk of transmission. This includes semesters such as undergraduate I (2019-22 session) and 3rd semester (2018-21 session) and also for post graduate 1st semester (2019-21 session) and 3rd semester (2018-20 session) exams. We are however waiting for the Supreme Court's decision for the final semester exams, that is the undergraduate 6th semester exams and post graduate 4th semester exams."

He said that evaluation of previous semesters for promotion of students to next semester will be carried as per a unanimous decision taken by the board.

“For PG semester I exam (2019-20 session) for which examination of a few papers were held, the evaluation will be done entirely on the basis of marks obtained in internal exams. For semester III (2019-20 session), evaluation will be carried out on the basis of a composite system based on 50 per cent marks in internal exam and 50 per cent from previous year exams,” said Srivastava, adding that a similar process of evaluation would be followed for semester I (2019-22 session) and semester III (2018-21 session).

BBMKU on July 22 had announced plans to hold nine semester examinations for different professional as well as undergraduate (UG) and post graduate (PG) academic courses.

As per the examination schedule released by the university on July 22 UG semester I and II exams, pending papers exams for PG semester I and LLB semester II and VI were scheduled to begin from August 4, followed by one pending paper exam of B Ed besides MBBS Part III exam from August 5, MBBS Part I and Part II exams from August 11 etc.

The University administration, however, again on July 25 decided to postpone all undergraduate exams in view of the widespread students protest.

The students protest continued even after the cancellation of undergraduate exams and finally the university on July 28 decided to postpone all the exams till further orders and announced that the decision to hold exams again will be taken after conducting a comprehensive review of the existing situation.