Need ‘huge infrastructure’, teachers for UGC’s biannual admission policy to work, say universities

By Shradha Chettri & Atul Krishna

NEW DELHI: The University Grants Commission’s (UGC) announcement of biannual admission system has two important concerns, raised by both private and public universities – the dire need of vast infrastructure and of more teachers. Following the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the public universities are already struggling with the crunch of infrastructure.

In an announcement on Tuesday, UGC chief M Jagadesh Kumar had said, “In its meeting held on May 15, UGC took a policy decision to allow higher education institutions (HEIs) who offer programs in regular mode to admit students twice in a year, either in January/February or July/August, from the coming academic year. With this decision, HEIs offering programs either in online/ODL mode or regular physical mode will be able to admit students twice a year.”

The adoption of the system is not mandatory for universities. However, DU vice chancellor Yogesh Singh told Careers360 that “the system could be tried with few programmes and courses” from the next academic session.

UGC’s rationale

According to the UGC, the decision comes in the wake of the success of the two admission cycles for universities providing education in distance or online mode.

“UGC has decided in its 571st commission held on July 25, 2023, to permit biannual admissions under Open and Distance Learning (ODL) and Online modes in January and July during an academic year. As per the information furnished by the HEIs on the UGC Distance Education Board (DEB) portal, in addition to a total of 19,73,056 students were enrolled in July 2022 and an additional 4,28,854 students joined in January 2023 in ODL and online programs. These numbers show that permitting a second academic session in a year has helped nearly half-a-million students join their degree programmes without waiting for one full academic year,” stated the note issued by the commission.

According to Kumar, following this will also help in promoting Indian universities and making India a “global study destination” and enhancing the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER).

As per the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2021-2022, the GER stands at 4.33 crore in 2021-22 from 4.14 crore in 2020-21. Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan had stressed that India wants to increase its GER from 27% to 50% by 2030.

“Biannual admissions will also enable the HEIs to plan their resource distribution, such as faculty, labs, classrooms and support services, more efficiently, resulting in a better functional flow within the university. Universities worldwide already follow a biannual admission system. If Indian HEIs adopt the biannual admission cycle, our HEIs can enhance their international collaborations and student exchanges. As a result, our global competitiveness will improve, and we will align with the global educational standards,” said Kumar.

UGC biannual admissions: Concerns

Singh said, “This is a very common idea in western world. Many American and UK universities are taking admission in two cycles – fall and spring. This is a good idea. When it comes to implementation, there are challenges no doubt, because both the requirements of infrastructure and teachers will increase. It is in the interest of those students who could not get admission in the first cycle or for those who had got a compartment. The dual admission system has already started in PhD too. Slowly and steadily we will start, there shouldn’t be any issue.”

Anu Lather, vice chancellor of Dr BR Ambedkar University, Delhi, said it was a “welcome decision”, but added that “implementation of that scheme also requires additional infrastructure and additional faculty and staff."

For both these universities the admission cycle usually concludes by the end of September.

Singh said, “It is very difficult in that sense, but we will identify a few programmes, courses and see if this system (can be started) in the next academic session. This year the process has already started. We may think of it from next year onwards, but it requires teachers and infrastructure.”

UGC’s college admission announcement ‘confusing’

However, teachers have their own concerns and say that the announcement is “confusing” and has been made without “conversation” with stakeholders.

Debraj Mookerjee, associate professor of English at Delhi University’s Ramjas College, said, “These changes have to emerge out of a conversation, can’t just come out because you want to be part of the American system. Forget feasibility, the university is already hamstrung by two exams, the NEP has seven exams. I don’t know what he is trying to say. In India, there is a calendar. How does one switch from that? The American system is compartmentalised, there is no concept of first year, second year, third year, unlike here.”

Also read AICTE seeks clarification on approval for technical institutions to offer biannual admission

Even B Manohar, president of Osmania University Teachers Association pointed to a range of “practical difficulties”.

“Admitting students twice a year means you need huge infrastructure and I don’t think the university will be in a position to do this. Two batches every year will be a tough job because we have infrastructure and hostel facilities just for one batch. It’s fine to say that admissions can be given twice a year but the practical difficulties are just too much,” said Manohar, professor of physical chemistry at Osmania University, Hyderabad.

JNU, AU fear admission delays

In Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), teachers say their academic calendar has already been affected due to delays in entrance examinations conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA). Earlier the universities have also complained about their admission process being delayed due to the exams being conducted by CUET.

The Common University Entrance Test (CUET) was introduced by the UGC in 2022 and all undergraduate admissions in central universities is through the test which, thus far, has been conducted once a year. It tests school graduates on various subjects and is held over weeks.

JNU teachers association (JNUTA) president Moushami Basu said, "The academic calendars for a university like JNU has been badly affected due to the delays in entrance examinations conducted by the NTA on the advice of UGC. They can't manage doing it once – how are they thinking of it twice over? The UGC, while making recommendations such as the one being discussed, has not done enough homework to know about the bottlenecks at the ground level.”

Then, officials at Allahabad University, which has repeatedly raised concerns over the delay in declaring CUET results, say the system would not be possible for regular courses.

Jaya Kapoor, the university public relations officer (PRO), said, “The university has an elaborate admission process for admission to over 21,000 seats in various streams and programmes. As a consequence of the delay in CUET results last year, the admission process could only be completed by December. If admissions happen twice a year, the teaching could suffer seriously. So such a process might not be feasible for regular courses.”

However, the university is exploring the prospects of taking admission twice a year in the various 90 day electives running under the NEP 2020.

“These are skill-based and language proficiency courses which are open for both students as well as outside people intent on improving their skill sets or language proficiency,” said Kapoor, who is a professor at the English department of AU.

What private universities think

Balvinder Shukla, vice chancellor, Amity University, welcomed the move but also expressed concerns over whether Indian institutions have appropriate infrastructure to support two cycles of admission.

“There are a lot of things to consider before jumping to a decision. Moreover, school academic sessions and the beginning of college admissions are aligned in a certain way. There is a possibility that applications during the January cycle will be very low. We need to deliberate more on this since it requires more teachers, readjustment of examinations and schedules,” said Shukla.

Ashok Mittal, chancellor of Lovely Professional University, added another perspective to the announcement.

“It opens up exciting opportunities for students seeking to explore different fields or switch institutions without wasting valuable time. By allowing biannual admissions, students have the flexibility to make informed decisions about their education and seamlessly transition to another program or institution after just six months. Moreover, this policy benefits institutions by maximising their enrollment capacity and efficiently utilising their resources throughout the year,” said Mittal.