The postgraduate departments of Calcutta University will hold their practical exams online in view of the pandemic.

The university that had allowed the departments to hold practical classes on the campus from January 18, left it to departments to decide on what could be the mode of examination under the circumstances.

The departments have opted for the online mode, said an official of CU.

The exams of the theory papers of the odd semester (semester I and III) are being held online from March 8.

Since the practical classes were held in-person, it was expected that the department would want to hold the exams offline, said the official.

“But they have decided to hold it online in the form of conducting a viva or asking students to solve a problem on digital platforms,” he said.

Parthiba Basu, the head of the zoology department, said they opted the online mode following a compulsion to keep parity with the colleges, which run postgraduate courses and did not reopen even for practical classes.

Tilottoma Mukherjee, the head of the psychology department, said they will hold practical exams online as it would be impossible to bring patients from hospitals to the campus to enable students undertake psychometric assessment.

“The university has now left it to each department’s PG board of studies to set the questions and evaluate answers (theory and practical) on behalf of the colleges as well. If the department had to conduct its practical exam on the campus that would entail preparing separate sets of questions . We wanted parity,” said Basu, who is the president of Calcutta University Teachers’ Association.

The same compulsion forced most departments, said an official.

In a meeting held between education minister Partha Chatterjee and the representatives of the universities on February 3, it was decided that the campuses would remain shut due to the pandemic.

The representative of CU was questioned why postgraduate departments were reopened for holding the practical classes without consulting the education department.

CU vice-chancellor Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee said: “Our departments are autonomous to decide what mode would be suitable for them”.