UGC panel recommend new session from September owing to lockdown
PRAYAGRAJ: The 12 members panel of University Grants Commission (UGC), set up to look into issues related to examinations and academic calendar faced by universities across the country due to the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown, have recommended that start of the academic session for new students be pushed to September. At the same time, on the issue of promoting students to the next class, the committee has recommended that universities should either hold exams or adopt some mode of accessing their performance before promoting them.
UGC had in this month constituted two committees, first on examinations and academic calendar to be followed by universities and the other being on the issue of promoting online education. Recommendations of both the committees have been submitted to UGC and the ministry of human resource and development (HRD) is likely to announce its decision this week.
An official of the UGC, on condition of anonymity, told TOI that among several recommendations, the panel has advocated for universities to switch over to Six day working to compensate the loss. Many universities including Allahabad University (AU) follow the Five day week working concept.
Headed by former member, UGC and Vice Chancellor of Central University of Haryana, Prof RC Kuhad, the committee looked into the aspect of continuity of educational services and also ensuring the safety and security of the students, faculty and staff. At the same time, it also addressed the timely completion of syllabi, conduct of the examinations and declaration of results apart from further admissions, charting out a plan for the next academic session.
After marathon meetings with the all the stakeholders through various electronic means and after taking a holistic view of the present scenario the committee has recommended that all the universities may follow a 6-day week pattern to compensate the loss for the remaining session of 2019-20 and the new session 2020-21.
On the important issue of admissions, the panel recommends that common admission test may be conducted at national/ state Level for admissions to the UG, PG courses and research programmes in the universities and colleges. “The universities shall make admissions to the UG and PG programmes for the session 2020-21 latest by August 31 this year and if necessity arises, provisional admissions may be made and the last date of submission of relevant documents of qualifying examination will be September 30.
Regarding the requirement of minimum percentage of attendance for the students or research scholars, the period of lockdown may be treated as 'deemed to be attended' by all, says the committee.
“The committee recommends reduction of time duration of exam from Three hours to Two hours and in order to maintain social distancing, one of the possibility for grading of the students could be composite of 50% marks on the basis of internal evaluation and the remaining 50% marks on the basis of performance of previous semester”, said the official. ln lieu of final examination (of 50% marks), the students should be given assignments, project work, term paper, mini review, open book exam etc. during the period, he added.
The modalities for examination and other related activities be applied uniformly across all courses in a university and the students should be informed well in advance (at least one week) about the conduct of examinations and other related activities, says the panel.
The universities should develop a fool-proof plan before the resumption of session, strictly following the norms of "social distancing" and other required precautions, to avoid any eventuality arising due to COVID-19.
The universities may devise a proforma to record the travel/ stay history of the staff and students for the period when they remained away from the university due to lockdown so that necessary precautions may be taken in specific cases, if required. ln addition to that, the universities shall strictly comply with all precautions and preventive measures to curb the spread of Corona Virus.
ln view of the importance of social distancing, universities may take necessary steps to ensure that the students are given exposure to laboratory or practical experiments through virtual laboratories and the link provided by Ministry of Human Resource Development may be suitable for such purposes.
“ln order to overcome such challenges in future, the faculty should be adequately trained for the use of ICT and online teaching tools, so that they complete about 25% of the syllabus through online and 75% syllabus through face to face teaching”, informs the official.
The recommendations of the committee shall not cause any restrictions on the guidelines issued by the state or central government.
UGC had in this month constituted two committees, first on examinations and academic calendar to be followed by universities and the other being on the issue of promoting online education. Recommendations of both the committees have been submitted to UGC and the ministry of human resource and development (HRD) is likely to announce its decision this week.
An official of the UGC, on condition of anonymity, told TOI that among several recommendations, the panel has advocated for universities to switch over to Six day working to compensate the loss. Many universities including Allahabad University (AU) follow the Five day week working concept.
Headed by former member, UGC and Vice Chancellor of Central University of Haryana, Prof RC Kuhad, the committee looked into the aspect of continuity of educational services and also ensuring the safety and security of the students, faculty and staff. At the same time, it also addressed the timely completion of syllabi, conduct of the examinations and declaration of results apart from further admissions, charting out a plan for the next academic session.
After marathon meetings with the all the stakeholders through various electronic means and after taking a holistic view of the present scenario the committee has recommended that all the universities may follow a 6-day week pattern to compensate the loss for the remaining session of 2019-20 and the new session 2020-21.
On the important issue of admissions, the panel recommends that common admission test may be conducted at national/ state Level for admissions to the UG, PG courses and research programmes in the universities and colleges. “The universities shall make admissions to the UG and PG programmes for the session 2020-21 latest by August 31 this year and if necessity arises, provisional admissions may be made and the last date of submission of relevant documents of qualifying examination will be September 30.
Regarding the requirement of minimum percentage of attendance for the students or research scholars, the period of lockdown may be treated as 'deemed to be attended' by all, says the committee.
“The committee recommends reduction of time duration of exam from Three hours to Two hours and in order to maintain social distancing, one of the possibility for grading of the students could be composite of 50% marks on the basis of internal evaluation and the remaining 50% marks on the basis of performance of previous semester”, said the official. ln lieu of final examination (of 50% marks), the students should be given assignments, project work, term paper, mini review, open book exam etc. during the period, he added.
The modalities for examination and other related activities be applied uniformly across all courses in a university and the students should be informed well in advance (at least one week) about the conduct of examinations and other related activities, says the panel.
The universities should develop a fool-proof plan before the resumption of session, strictly following the norms of "social distancing" and other required precautions, to avoid any eventuality arising due to COVID-19.
The universities may devise a proforma to record the travel/ stay history of the staff and students for the period when they remained away from the university due to lockdown so that necessary precautions may be taken in specific cases, if required. ln addition to that, the universities shall strictly comply with all precautions and preventive measures to curb the spread of Corona Virus.
ln view of the importance of social distancing, universities may take necessary steps to ensure that the students are given exposure to laboratory or practical experiments through virtual laboratories and the link provided by Ministry of Human Resource Development may be suitable for such purposes.
“ln order to overcome such challenges in future, the faculty should be adequately trained for the use of ICT and online teaching tools, so that they complete about 25% of the syllabus through online and 75% syllabus through face to face teaching”, informs the official.
The recommendations of the committee shall not cause any restrictions on the guidelines issued by the state or central government.
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