Exams delayed, varsities’ final year students jittery

Exams delayed, varsities’ final year students jittery

Mohita.Tewari@timesgroup.com

Lucknow:  19.05.2020

Final year students of city universities and colleges are passing sleepless nights these days.

Inordinate delay in examinations following closure of institutions due to Covid-19 pandemic has forced most of them to drop their plan to skip an academic year to prepare for competitive examinations or for seeking admission in top institutes.

Now, their priority is to seek a job, while those who have planned to pursure higher studies abroad are chalking out their strategies afresh.

“The news of people being sacked from jobs, companies withdrawing job offers and pay cuts is a nightmare for all final year students. Not only this the delay in examination and results is one of the biggest worries as we will get our degrees late and hence job application for various government and private jobs will be delayed further,” said Btech student Abhigyan Srivastava of IET college.

MBA student at LU Utkarsh Sinha said, “After completing BTech I took an education loan for MBA. Now, when I am in MBA final year economic slump due to the lockdown is a reason to worry.” The students also shared that they are open to earn while learning and will be beginning job hunts along with higher studies.

No job in sight, education loans a worry for those pursuing professional studies

The lockdown triggered by novel coronavirus and the subsequent slump in the economy have come as a setback to millions. However, final-year students who have taken education loans to pursue professional courses are having sleepless nights. Their worry is that they do not know how to pay back the loans as there are no jobs in sight as of now. Many want the government’s intervention to suspend loan recovery. “My father is retiring next year. I had taken an education loan with the hope that I will pay back after getting a job but now, it seems the entire family will have to suffer,” said Shitiz Mukherjee, a civil engineering student. “My father works in a private college and has not got salary for two months. My mother has recently undergone open-heart surgery. I don’t know how I will pay back my loan,” said final-year mechanical engineering student Akhil Agarwal. “I did not get a job after completing engineering, so I joined a part-time job at an engineering college and took loan for an MBA. The situation has become worse,” said MBA final-year student Ritika Shukla.