IIEST will allow second-year BTech students, many of whom could not be provided hostel accommodation, to write the end-semester exams online, an official at the Shibpur institute said.
The exams start on May 5.
“Those staying on the campus, too, will be allowed to write the exams online. They can leave for home before the start of the exams,” the official said.
“If the hostel rooms lack connectivity, those staying there can write the exams on laptops or smartphones from classrooms or the library on the campus.”
The institute had last week told 60 second-year students that they would be accommodated in makeshift hostels that lacked network-dining-drinking water facilities, as hostel buildings could not be repaired on time.
Another 87 second-year students could not be provided any accommodation at all and were told to arrange for places to stay outside the campus.
The decision to allow second-year students to write the end-semester papers online was taken at a meeting of the institute’s senate on Wednesday, the official said.
The senate also decided that BTech third- and fourth-year students would write the end-semester exams, during the same period as the second-year students (May 5 to 14), offline.
“Since they (third- and fourth-year students) have been accommodated in hostels, they can write the exams offline. However, more weightage will be given to scores in the partly proctored online mid-semester exams (50 per cent) held in March,” an IIEST official said.
The scores in the end-semester offline exams will be given 30 per cent weightage, while the rest will be teachers’ assessment.