UGC holds emergency meet on academic calendar, exam & online education

NEW DELHI: The University Grants Commission (UGC) held an emergency meeting on April 27 to discuss the reports of the two expert committees that have recommended measures for salvaging the academic session and implementing online education.

On the directions of the human resource and development (HRD) minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, the UGC had constituted an expert committee under the Vice-Chancellor of the Central University of Haryana, RC Kuhad. The committee formed on April 6 was to suggest measures on dealing with the impact of delay on the academic cycle, conducting examinations and resuming education through online means during COVID-19 lockdown conditions.

The expert committee had submitted its report on April 25 and suggested pushing the academic calendar to September, instead of reducing teaching-learning time. Promoting online education, the committee had said that today’s children are tech-savvy but it agreed that the one-size-fits-all approach may not apply to all students and some students may be left out of online teaching.

According to the official statement, “An emergent commission meeting was held on April 27, 2020 at 4 pm through video conferencing to discuss (1) Report of the expert committee and the guidelines on examinations and academic calendar for the universities and (2) Report of the expert committee on promoting online education and suggestive implementation plan on the recommendations of the expert committee in view of COVID-19 pandemic.”

In the emergent UGC meeting, the reports, guidelines and implementation plan for online education were discussed at length and suggestions were given by commission members. After incorporating all the suggestions, UGC will release the guidelines for universities and colleges.

Also read:

• COVID-19: UGC expert committee recommends online teaching to catch up
• COVID-19: UGC sets up committee to report on exam delay by April 13

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