The University Grant Commission (UGC) has released new examination guidelines and academic calendar for students which include exam dates, re-opening of college date, the commencement of classes etc. The Academic Session 2020-21 for old students may commence from August 01, 2020, and from September 01, 2020, for fresh students. The exams will be conducted in July in states where the Covid-19 situation has been normalized.
The UGC expert panel committee has released the recommendations on April 29, 2020, in presence of Union HRD Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Secretary, Higher Education, MHRD Amit Khare and among other senior officials.
The Commission has also said the universities may adopt alternative and simplified modes in respect to the pending examinations to complete in a shorter time and reducing the time from 3 hours to 2 hours.
In case the situation does not appear to be normal due to COVID-19, to maintain safety and health of the students, “social distancing”, grading of the students could be composite of 50% marks based on the pattern of internal evaluation and the remaining 50% marks can be awarded based on performance in previous semester only (if available). The internal evaluation can be continuous evaluation, mid-semester, prelims, internal evaluation or whatever name is given for student progression.
The Commission has allowed an extension of 6 months period to the Ph.D. or M.Phil. students. The universities may conduct the M. Phil. and Ph.D. Viva -Voce examinations through video conferencing using Skype, Google, Microsoft Technologies or any other reliable and mutually convenient technology.
Universities may consider assigning software-driven projects or review-based/ secondary data-based projects, instead of laboratory-based experiments or field/ survey-based assignments to UG/ PG students.
The following are the UGC Examination Dates and Academic Calendar for universities.
Some General Guidelines Released by UGC
- Universities may follow a 6-day week pattern.
- Students will be given exposure to laboratory assignments/ practical experiments through virtual laboratories, sharing of the recorded visuals of laboratory work and digital resources available for the purpose.
- Link provided by MHRD for virtual laboratories to facilitate the students of science/ engineering/ technology streams may also be suitable for such purposes.
- Develop virtual classroom and video conferencing facility and all teaching staff should be trained with the use of the technology.
- Universities should prepare e-content/e-lab experiments and upload on their websites.
- Strengthen the mechanism of mentor-mentee counselling.
- Universities may devise a proforma to record the Travel/ Stay history of the staff and students for the period when they were away from the university due to lockdown.
- 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 teaching and 75% syllabus through face to face teaching.
Read Full Guidelines Here:
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