Lucknow, Apr 22 (IANS): The Lucknow University has planned to promote over one lakh students of the varsity and its 180 affiliated colleges without appearing in exams.

This is being done due to the surge in Covid-19 cases following the outbreak of the lethal second wave.

The university authorities have decided to seek permission from the state government for promoting the students and a request letter will be sent to the government in this regard shortly.

"The examinations of undergraduate (III and V semesters) and postgraduate (III semester) students have already been held, but the first semester exams scheduled in April had to be postponed due to the second Covid wave. We will seek permission from the government for promoting all students," LU spokesperson Durgesh Srivastava told reporters.

"The number of Covid cases is not likely to go down soon, hence conducting the first-semester examination will not be possible. We will seek detailed guidelines from the government on how to promote first semester students who have not appeared in examination," said the LU official.

Promoting the students will help in beginning the new academic session on time, he added.

The online classes of most semesters have already begun.

In the case of first semester students whose examinations could not be held, their classes for next semester will begin shortly, he said.

Last year, the state government had directed universities to assess the final semester students through an examination conducted in online, offline or a hybrid mode while all first and second-year students were promoted on the basis of internal evaluation and performance in the previous semester.

The university had subsequently promoted all first and second year students, while the examinations of final year were held in offline mode.