University Grants Commission, UGC has released guidelines on Examinations and Academic Calendar for the Universities in view of COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. The academic session 2020-21 may commence from the 1st of August for old students and from the 1st of September for fresh students.
New academic calendar suggested by UGC for the academic session 2020-2021:
The Academic Calendar is suggestive in nature. The universities may adopt/adapt it after making a comprehensive assessment of their level of preparedness, residential status of the students, status of COVID-19 pandemic spread in their city/region/state and other factors.
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Admission Process | 1st August 2020 to 31st August 2020 |
| Commencement of Classes i. Students of 2nd/ 3rd year * ii. Fresh batch (First Semester/Year) | i. 1st August 2020 ii. 1st September 2020 |
| Conduct of Examinations | 1st January 2021 to 25th January 2021 |
| Commencement of Classes for Even Semester | 27th January 2021 |
| Dispersal of Classes | 25th May 2021 |
| Conduct of Examinations | 26th May 2021 to 26th June 2021 |
| Summer Vacations | 1st July 2021 to 30 July 2021 |
| Commencement of Next Academic Session | 2nd August 2021 |
* For courses more than a 3-year duration, the university may plan accordingly.
Some General Guidelines from UGC:
- All the universities may follow a 6-day week pattern to compensate for the loss for the remaining session of 2019-20 and the next session 2020-21.
- 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. The link provided by the Ministry of Human Resource Development for virtual laboratories to facilitate the students of science/ engineering/ technology streams may also be suitable for such purposes.
- Every institute should develop a virtual classroom and video conferencing facility and all teaching staff should be trained with the use of the technology.
- The universities should prepare e-content/e-lab experiments and upload the same on their websites.
- The universities should strengthen the mechanism of mentor-mentee counseling through a dedicated portal on the university website to impart timely guidance and counseling to the students. Besides, the faculty advisor and supervisor assigned to each student should maintain regular communication with the students.
- 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.
- 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.
- In view of the present scenario and future uncertainties:
- the universities may adopt and implement these Guidelines in a transparent manner by making alterations/ additions/ modifications/ amendments to deal with a particular situation(s) in the best interest of students, educational institution and the entire education system,
- if the university faces difficulty in making admissions as per the existing policy, it may adopt alternative modes of admission process, if otherwise legally tenable, and
- In case of educational institutions located at places where the
Government (Centre/ State) have imposed restrictions on gathering of public, the institutions may plan accordingly. In any case, the above recommendations shall not cause any restrictions on the guidelines/directions issued by the appropriate Government/competent authority.
Official Notification: Click Here