GU medical exams postponed to December 9

Ahmedabad: A week after about 1,700 students whose weeklong MBBS second-year final exams were to begin on December 2, demanded that the exams be postponed as they clash with polling dates for the state assembly election, the university on Saturday postponed the exams to December 9. Voting day is December 1 for the first phase December 5 for the second. Students said Gujarat University has postponed all exams that were clashing with polling dates except for the second year MBBS, MSc nursing and PG physiotherapy exams. Students had said they would be unable to vote with the current exam schedule.

Earlier GU had announced that the examinations that were to begin on November 22 and December 8 have been postponed due to the assembly election. A statement from the university said the likely new dates are December 12 and December 27, respectively.

Semester examinations for the commerce, business management, science, law and education faculties have been postponed as most of the teaching staff have been given election duties. Many college and university campuses are also being used as polling stations. The university will announce a detailed exam schedule at a later stage, the university had said.

Sources said GU postponed the exams after receiving many complaints from students and parents. Sources said that one of the reasons for postponing the exams is that LD Engineering College is selected as one of the counting centers and EVMs will also be stored there. This would have created a lot of disturbance during the exams as LD Engineering College is located in the GU campus area. Students welcoming the decision said that postponing the exams will help many MBBS students who are studying at colleges in Ahmedabad are registered as voters from other towns and villages and would have to travel to their home towns to vote.

According to election commission figures, there are 11.74 lakh first-time voters in the state and 93,000 of them are from Ahmedabad.