Final year students at the elite Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have job offers in hand but no degree as Covid-19 lockdown makes it impossible to schedule final exams. Early graduation, take-home exam, grading based on past performance, telephonic viva-voce are some of the options being adopted by the IITs for their graduating students.
The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay has decided to cancel the final examinations for the 2019-20 academic year. The final grading of all the courses will be completed by June 30, 2020, which will be based on the evaluation completed until mid-semester examination. The instructions may also decide on an additional evaluation process using a suitable online mode for 20% weightage provided all the students will be able to avail of the facility. Especially those students who have missed their mid-semester examinations and those who wish to impose their grades by appearing for a 100 mark examination to be conducted by the end of spring semester 2020-21. It has also called off the spring semester scheduled from June 1, 2020 to July 13, 2020, according to the revised academic calendar. Summer vacations have been rescheduled from April 1 to May 31, 2020. This ensures that no changes are made in the academic calendar for the next year, which will again cause an inconvenience for the students graduating from the institution.
IIT Delhi has given students the option of early graduation in June, with regular graduation likely sometime in July. Students are not forced to take it, but will have the flexibility if they choose to exercise this option It has cautioned that regular graduation dates may change depending on the Covid-19 situation evolves. Student will not need to come to the campus as all early graduation requirements will be met through an online process that will include take home exams, telephonic interviews, online tests etc. IIT Delhi hopes to get the students back to the campus starting from July 2 in a phased manner. However, these dates can change depending on how the Covid situation evolves (may be delayed).
IIT Kanpur will adopt a special grading scheme keeping in mind the crisis and students will be awarded A, B, C and S grades. Grading for courses and theses will be completed by June 30. There will be no terminations at the end of the semester. The Masters students who were unable to complete their research work for the thesis due to the lockdown have been given the option to submit a Masters project report in order to enable them to graduate.
IIT Roorkee has introduced a system to convert a pass letter grade to a Satisfactory (S) grade without grade point if a student requests for the same. The weightage ranges of various evaluation components have been revised. Further, students also have the option to appear in a re-exam to improve their grades. The performance of the students in spring semester 2019-2020 will not be counted for academic performance-based termination of programs, slow pace programs, and towards any other such clauses.
IIT Roopar is yet to take a call on conducting exams, it is finalising details on how students can benefit most and grading does not suffer as they enter the market following graduation.
IIT Kharagpur has decided to close the spring 2020 semester with the end semester examination being replaced with other considerations of evaluating student performance including grades of mid-semester exam, assignments, viva-voce etc.