Some departments of Presidency University have decided to factor in marks of the Plus-II exams while admitting students from other universities to postgraduate courses as they are not satisfied with the way final undergraduate exams were held, a Presidency official said.

The departments suspect that the results announced amid the Puja don’t reflect a prospective candidate’s merit.

The eligibility criteria for the 83 seats will be announced in the first week of November, said another official of the university.

At least three departments — biological science, chemistry and physics — had said in the last meeting of the admission committee that they wanted to give some weightage to the marks in the plus-II board exams a postgraduate aspirant had written in 2017.

The remaining weightage can be given to the performance at the undergraduate exams.

At Presidency, 20 per cent of the 417 seats (83) are open for students from other universities.

At the admission committee meeting, the three departments suggested that 25 per cent weightage be given to the plus-II board exam marks, the Presidency official said.

“The teachers representing the three departments said the final-year or the end-semester exams were written by students sitting at home and in the absence of any invigilation. So, the teachers are not sure whether the results reflected a student’s merit. According to them, the HS results will help them judge better the merit of a candidate,” the official told The Telegraph.

Since on-campus tests could not be held because of the pandemic, all universities allowed the final-year undergraduate students to write their exams from home and send the answers through WhatsApp or email.

The biological science and chemistry departments of Presidency have said they want to give 25 per cent weightage to the marks obtained in the science subjects in the plus-II board exams. The physics department has yet to decide whether they want to give 25 per cent weightage to the physics score or the marks in all science subjects in the plus-II exams.

“We wanted to hold a test ourselves, considering that exams like JEE Main, NEET and the JNU entrance test have been held recently. But the proposal was struck down on health grounds,” a teacher in the chemistry department said.

The state JEE board, which conducts the admission test for Presidency University, had informed the authorities last month that it would not be able to conduct any on-campus test this year, Presidency vice-chancellor Anuradha Lohia said.