Christ University students oppose examinations that begin today

Students of Bengaluru’s Christ (deemed to be) University have been protesting against examinations which begin today

As the Christ (Deemed to be) University gears up to begin its semester-end examinations today, students of the institution have been protesting against the decision to conduct examinations for a while now. The exams were postponed in the month of March due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Students have reported having no choice but to sit for online examinations, which are being conducted on the curriculum they studied months ago. Even though revision classes were set up, students allege they were essentially two-hour-long sessions that merely reiterated the syllabus for the upcoming exams. Others feel that while the option of giving offline exams has been offered, it was deliberately designed to become an undesirable choice.

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“In the Vice-Chancellor's address, they said we have the option of giving offline exams. But they put us in a prisoner's dilemma. They mentioned that we could give offline examinations but we cannot be assured regarding when or how they would be taken. The college said that they could not guarantee us study holidays or any form of academic assistance if we opt for offline examinations. We were indirectly pushed in the direction of online examinations. My grievance mail has not been replied to,” said Rohit (name changed), a student of the institution.

Another challenge in front of some students is the unavailability of study material and notes, which some of them left in their hostels and PGs before they hurriedly returned home due to the pandemic. Shortage of technological resources like a laptop and a stable internet connection is another issue for some students.

Priya (name changed) a second-year student whose father has not been getting his salary due to the pandemic, recently had a WiFi connection installed in her house so that she could give the exam. “We have been cooped up inside our house for months, there are positive cases everywhere, it's really scary. We have to study for our exams while the new semester classes are going on,” she said.

Rohit alleged that while the college told a newspaper that students can give the examination on their mobile phones as well, during the VC address, they were asked to have “a good functioning desktop or a laptop with a camera and audio facility”. “I understand that we come from a generation where these are easily available but understand that many of us will still not have access to this,” he added.

Students allege that a link that would allow them to withdraw from the online examinations will only be activated 60 minutes after the exam starts, thus compromising their ability to withdraw timely.

Another grievance of the students is that the act of giving an examination itself is extremely stressful right now.

A student, who suffers from a psychological disorder, is worried about how triggering the stress of the pandemic and the exams will be for her. “This situation has made me panic in the last three-four days. At this point in time, if I get an attack, I won’t even be able to go to a hospital. I have sent multiple emails to them, I have tried speaking to them personally, I sent my prescription as well, but I got automated responses each time,” the student, who did not wish to be named, added.

“I am a third-year student. We had internships in the month of April, then we had online classes from May, we had submissions for every subject in the online classes, apart from which we had internal graded submissions and after this, we had internship vivas, reports, and presentations. After this, we have dissertation proposals. I left Bangalore in a rush without my study material. It has been five months since we studied our fourth-semester syllabus," said Faizan (name changed) upon being questioned about how stressful the upcoming exams have been for him.

Another bone of contention for the student body is the examination fee of Rs 500 that was collected from students.

“Initially it (exam fee) was not supposed to be charged. The seniors gave their exams and they weren’t charged. Then in one meeting, a college official clearly mentioned that they will be charging us because they cannot incur the cost of the exams,” said Priya. The tuition fee at Christ can range from Rs 80,000 to Rs 3 lakh per annum, according to the same source.

Faizan shares Priya’s woes. “We had to pay an amount of Rs 500 despite paying the fee for the entire year. Almost 12,000 students have paid this amount, which makes it Rs 60 lakh or so that go to the Christ trust,” he said.

Student’s took several steps to protest against the examinations, from speaking out on Twitter with anonymous handles to talking about it on television with a mask on. A Twitter handle with the username of @JChristites (Justice For Christites) has been talking about the students’ struggles in detail.

The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) has offered solidarity to the students demanding the cancellation of exams.

However, Christ University Vice-Chancellor Father Abraham told The News Minute that 94.47 percent students are in favour of giving the examination.”

In regards to any connectivity problems that students might face, he said, "Any such issue will be taken care of and retest will be held."