The University Grant Commission has released its guidelines on examination and academic calendar for universities in view of COVID-19 pandemic and consequent lockdown.
As all universities and colleges are closed due to national lockdown, the teaching – learning process and research activities have been badly disrupted, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has been engaged with this issue and contemplating measures to face the challenge of safeguarding the interests of the academic fraternity in general and students in particular.
Based on the recommendations of the Expert Committee, the following Guidelines was framed for the Examinations and the Academic Calendar in the Universities. The guidelines are advisory in nature and each university may chart out its own plan of action taking into consideration the issues pertaining to COVID – 19 Pandemic, while maintaining the sanctity of academic expectations and integrity of examination process, the universities may adopt alternative and simplified modes and methods of examinations to complete the process in shorter period of time in compliance with CBCS requirements as prescribed by UGC from time to time. These may include MCQ/ OMR based examinations, Open Book Examination, Open Choices, assignment/ presentation-based assessments etc.
“The universities may adopt efficient and innovative modes of examinations by reducing the time from 3 hours to 2 hours assigned to each examination, if need arises but without compromising the quality, so that the process may be completed in multiple shifts and, at the same time, sanctity to evaluate the performance of a student is also maintained. The universities may conduct Terminal / Intermediate Semester / Year examinations in offline / online mode, as per their Ordinances/ Rules and Regulations, Scheme of Examinations, observing the guidelines of “social distancing” and keeping in view the support system available with them and ensuring fair opportunity to all students. Terminal semester / year examinations for PG/ UG courses/ programmes may be conducted by universities as suggested in the academic calendar keeping in mind the protocols of “social distancing”, said in the guidelines.
Later, it was said that for intermediate semester/year students, the universities may conduct examinations, after making a comprehensive assessment of their level of preparedness, residential status of the students, status of COVID-19 pandemic spread in different regions / state and other factors, and in case the situation does not appear to be normal in view of COVID-19, in order to maintain “social distancing”, safety and health of the students, grading of the students could be composite of 50% marks on the basis of the pattern of internal 6 evaluation adopted by the universities and the remaining 50% marks can be awarded on the basis of performance in previous semester only (if available).
If the student wishes to improve the grades, he/she may appear in special exams for such subjects during next semester. This provision for intermediate semester examinations is only for the current academic session (2019-20) in view of COVID-19 pandemic, while maintaining safety and health of all the stakeholders and sanctity and quality of examinations.
This was informed through guidelines that the modalities for examination and other related activities be applied uniformly across all courses in a university and the students should be informed well in advance (at least one week) about the conduct of examinations and other related activities. Moreover, regarding the requirement of minimum percentage of attendance for the students/ research scholars, the period of lockdown may be treated as ‘deemed to be attended’ by all the students/ research scholars.
For the practical examinations and Viva-Voce Examinations, the universities may conduct through Skype or other meeting apps, and in case of intermediate semesters, the practical examinations may be conducted during the ensuing semesters.
The guidelines says that every University shall establish a cell for handling student grievances related to examinations and academic activities during COVID-19 pandemic and notify effectively to the students and the UGC will establish a Help Line for monitoring student grievances related to examinations and academic activities during COVID-19 pandemic.
The Academic Session 2020-21 may commence from 01.8.2020 for old students and from 01.09.2020 for fresh students.
“Some General Guidelines
1. All the universities may follow a 6-day week pattern to compensate the loss for the remaining session of 2019-20 and the next session 2020-21.
2. 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 Ministry of Human Resource Development for virtual laboratories to facilitate the students of science/ engineering/ technology streams may be suitable for such purposes.
3. Every institute should develop virtual classroom and video conferencing facility and all teaching staff should be trained with the use of the technology.
4. The universities should prepare e-content/e-lab experiments and upload the same on their websites.
5. The universities should strengthen the mechanism of mentor-mentee counselling through a dedicated portal on university website to impart timely guidance and counselling to the students. Besides, the faculty advisor and supervisor assigned to each student should maintain regular communication with the students.
6. 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.
7. 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”, mentioned in the guidelines.