UGC rolls out academic plan for the year — 2 hour exams, 6-day weeks and promotions based on internal assessment

• The University Grants Commission (UGC) has laid out guidelines for the next academic calendar after the lockdown lifts.
  
• As per the UGC directive, university students will be giving the examination in July and the next academic session will begin in August, 2020.
  
• The final year students will have to sit for exams — online or offline. However, the students in other semesters may be promoted based on the internal assessments.
  
• According to the guidelines, the exams shall be conducted for a duration of two hours now instead of three hours. In addition, the universities will have to follow a six-day week pattern “to compensate the loss for the remaining 2019-20 session”.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has laid out guidelines for the academic calendar after the lockdown lifts. As per the UGC directive, university students will be giving the final examination in July and the next academic session will begin in August, 2020.

“The academic session 2020-21 may commence from August 1 for old students and September 1 for fresh students.”


The final year students will have to sit for exams — online or offline. “Universities may conduct terminal, intermediate semester examinations in offline or online mode, as per their ordinances and regulations, scheme of examinations, observing the guidelines of ‘social distancing’ and keeping in view the support system available with them and ensuring fair opportunity to all students,” the directive said.

However, the students in other semesters may be promoted based on the internal assessment, the statutory body told the higher education institutions.

“For intermediate semester students, the universities may conduct examinations, after making a comprehensive assessment of their level of preparedness, otherwise grading will be done based on the internal evaluation,” said Ramesh Pokhriyal, Minister of Human Resource Development.

The global health emergency has already disrupted the academic calendar of students. As Indian went into a lockdown mode, the MHRD directed all the educational institutions — schools and universities — to suspend classes due to Coronavirus scare. The university entrances like JEE Mains are also delayed due to the pandemic.

Given the delay in the academic year, the higher education regulatory body also suggested other measures.

According to the guidelines, the exams shall be conducted for a duration of two hours now instead of three hours. In addition, the universities will have to follow a six-day week pattern “to compensate the loss for the remaining 2019-20 session”.

However, given the uncertainty due to Coronavurus, the guidelines said, “If the situation demands, universities can have summer vacations for 30 days in June.” The ministry said that the institutions can teach via virtual labs with recorded visuals and video conferencing methods.


“The faculty should be trained for the use of ICT and online teaching tools, so that they complete about 25% of the syllabus via online teaching and 75% through face to face teaching,” the official notice said.

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