UGC likely to issue revised guidelines on semester exams today

NEW DELHI: The University Grants Commission (UGC) is likely to come up with revised guidelines for final-semester and final-year examinations for the universities today.

Students across the country have been appealing to the UGC and the Ministry of Human Resource Development to cancel their examinations with COVID-19 cases constantly rising in the country. It is expected that in its fresh guidelines UGC will advise universities to scrap the final year examinations due to the pandemic.

The Union HRD Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ had hinted at this last week tweeting: “I have advised the @ugc_india to revisit the guidelines issued earlier for intermediate and Terminal Semester examinations and academic calendar. The foundation for revisited guidelines shall be health and safety students, teachers and staff.”

Some institutions, such as Delhi University , have insisted on holding exams online despite being ill-prepared for the exercise. DU has even been threatened with contempt proceedings by the Delhi High Court for “misrepresenting” facts about its hugely unpopular decision to hold online open book exams.

States Cancelling Exams

The UGC had issued exam and admission guidelines for universities and college in April . As per the guidelines, universities were asked to hold the examination of final year and final semester students in July. It also suggested to universities to promote students of intermediate semesters based on their internal assessment and performance in the previous semester exam.

Earlier, in May-June universities across the country came up with their own set of exam notifications causing panic among students as some universities located in red zones also announced examination from the end of June or early July.

However, some of the states have been proactive in cancelling the examination of final year students due to coronavirus pandemic. Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray in June first week announced that the universities in Maharashtra will not be holding any exams for those who are currently in the final year and will promote them based on their past performance.

Following the Unlock 2.0 guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which announced that all the educational institutions will remain closed till July 31, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister also said that the state will decide about the cancellation of the university level exams on July 2.

With cases of coronavirus infection increasing at an unprecedented rate across the country, students have been demanding for cancellation of exams due to safety concerns.

UGC Exam Guidelines

In April, the UGC formed two committees to deliberate on issues arising out of coronavirus lockdown to avoid academic loss and take appropriate measures. The committee headed by Central University of Haryana Vice-Chancellor R C Kuhad, tasked with looking into ways of conducting exams in universities and work on an alternate academic calendar gave its suggestions which were accepted by the UGC and the guidelines were framed.

The UGC is revisiting these guidelines as the cases of coronavirus have gone up and cancellation of final year exam is likely to be announced today. As per the new suggestion, final year students are likely to be promoted based on their performance of the previous semester and academic year.

Also read:

• Two-hour exams, projects, common entrance tests in UGC Panel’s report
  
• UGC revisiting guidelines on final semester exams: HRD Minister
  

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