The new academic session for existing students will commence from August 1 whereas for new (entrants) students from September 1. The admission process for academic year 2020-21 has to be done from August 1 to August 30. If necessity arises, provisional admissions may also be made and relevant documents of qualifying examination may be accepted up to September 1.
As far as the pending examinations are concerned, the same should be conducted in July and August.
These are the new guidelines for examinations and academic calendar for institutions of higher learning in view of Covid-19 pandemic.
“Maintaining the sanctity of academic expectations and integrity of examination process, the universities may adopt alternative and simplified modes and methods of examinations to complete the process in shorter period of time… If need be, the universities can reduce the time from 3 hours to 2 hours assigned to each examination,” the guidelines say.
The universities have been suggested to 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 UGC stated that the universities may conduct examinations in offline / online mode observing the guidelines of “social distancing” and keeping in view the support system available with them and ensuring fair opportunity to all students.
In case the situation does not appear to be normal in view of COVID-19, in order to maintain “social distancing”, safety and health of the students, grading of the students could be composite of 50% marks on the basis of the pattern of internal evaluation adopted by the universities and the remaining 50% marks can be awarded on the basis of performance in previous semester only (if available).
The guidelines prepared by UGC on the recommendations by two experts committees are suggestive in nature and universities can adjust as per their requirements and prevailing situations.
Some General Guidelines
1. 6-day week pattern to compensate the loss for the remaining session of 2019-20 and the next session 2020-21 be followed.
2. In 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 teaching and 75% syllabus through face to face teaching.
3. In view of the importance of “social distancing”, universities may take necessary steps to ensure that the students are 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.
4. Every institute should develop virtual classroom and video conferencing facility and all teaching staff should be trained with the use of the technology.
5. The universities should prepare e-content/e-lab experiments and upload the same on their websites.
6. The universities should strengthen the mechanism of mentor-mentee counselling through a dedicated portal on university website to impart timely guidance and counselling to the students. Besides, the faculty advisor and supervisor assigned to each student should maintain regular communication with the students.
7. The 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, so that necessary precautions may be taken in specific cases, if required. In addition, the universities will strictly comply with all precautions and preventive measures to curb the spread of COVID -19.
Admission Process 01.08.2020 to 31.08.2020
Commencement of Classes
i. Students of 2nd/ 3rd year 01.08.2020
ii. Fresh batch 01.09.2020
Conduct of Examinations 01.01.2021 to 25.01.2021
Commencement of Classes for Even Semester 27.01.2021
Dispersal of Classes 25.05.2021
Conduct of Examinations 26.05.2021 to 25.06.2021
Summer Vacations 01.07.2021 to 30.07.2021
Commencement of Next Academic Session 02.08.2021
