An University Grants Commission (UGC) formed Panel on academic calendar and examination has suggested that new session in the higher educational institutions should begin from September 1 for the first-year students

“For those students going in the second and third year, the committee has recommended to start their session from August 1. It also suggested that the final semester exams should be held first in the month of July followed by the exams of other semesters,” said a source.

The seven-member expert committee on the alternative academic calendar and examination is being headed by the RC Kuhad, Vice-Chancellor of Central University of Haryana and a former member of UGC.

Meanwhile, another committee has been set up by UGC under the chairmanship of Nageshwar Rao, the Vice-Chancellor of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) to look into the issues related with promoting online education.

“Online learning cannot be made mandatory in all the higher educational institutions as all of them do not have that kind of an infrastructure. However, those institutions that have such infrastructure should focus on promoting online education,” said the source mentioned above.

The aim of the guidelines is to facilitate colleges/universities. These institutes will be given the freedom to implement the guidelines depending on the Covid-19 situation in that particular region where the institution is situated.

“Currently, these guidelines are being discussed with the commission members and will be issued soon,” the source added.

After the extension of the lockdown till May 3, both committees had asked for more time to re-work on the reports which was granted by UGC. On April 24, these two panels submitted their report.

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