This story is from June 26, 2020

Gujarat universities in wait-and-watch mode

The state government may have to revisit its recent guidelines for conducting college level exams after the University Grants Commission (UGC) panel recently recommended to the Union HRD ministry to scrap the final year examination for all colleges and universities, said sources close to the development. ​
Gujarat universities in wait-and-watch mode
Representative image
AHMEDABAD: The state government may have to revisit its recent guidelines for conducting college level exams after the University Grants Commission (UGC) panel recently recommended to the Union HRD ministry to scrap the final year examination for all colleges and universities, said sources close to the development.
An announcement on this is likely to be made this week, the sources added.

This is expected to have a major impact on the varsities of Gujarat, many of which have already announced the exam schedule and have even begun preparations to conduct them from the next month.
The UGC decision comes after Union HRD ministry announced that the University Grants Commission (UGC) has been advised to revisit guidelines for intermediate and Terminal Semester examinations. Naveen Sheth, the vice-chancellor of Gujarat Technological University (GTU), said that in case the UGC revises its guidelines, they will have no option but to follow them. The GTU’s academic council had earlier this week reiterated its stand on holding college level examinations from July 2, onwards despite demands from some student organizations to cancel the exams. The varsity, which has about 550 colleges affiliated to it, has given three exam options to students, including two exams to be held in July and one to be held later once the Covid-19 crisis is over.
Earlier, the UGC had recommended the varsities to cancel the intermediate exams but the new proposal asks them to cancel the final year or terminal semester examinations as well. This decision comes after many educational institutions expressed their inability to conduct final year exams in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Political organizations of students have been protesting to press for their demands to cancel the college level exams. Faced with protests against its decision to hold examinations in July, the Gujarat University examination committee recently decided to defer the exams and said new dates would be announced soon. The deferment is effective for all courses except medical and paramedical exams, which will be held according to the schedule announced earlier. GU vice-chancellor Jagdish Bhavsar said that they would wait for formal announcement from the UGC before taking the final decision about conducting exams. Other varsities including the Saurashtra University, M S University and Veer Narmad South Gujarat University have also seen protests from students demanding postponement of the exams.
The revised guidelines of the UGC recommend universities and colleges to grade all students based on performance in previous years or semesters and internal assessments, said sources.
For college exams, the state government had issued a set of guidelines in May as per which in cases where the situation did not appear to be normal due to Covid-19, the state government announced a scheme called Merit Based Progression.
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA