UGC Guidelines for Universities: College Students to be provided complete attendance for lockdown period

UGC Guidelines for Universities: The University Grants Commission on Wednesday evening released a set of detailed guidelines for colleges and universities which provides clarity about conduct of business during the COVDI-19 lockdown and post-lockdown period. As part of this, the guidelines have mentioned that college students will be provided complete attendance for the lockdown period, irrespective of their ability to attend the classes online or not.

New Academic Session from 2^nd September

According to a report published by Times of India, the new academic session for colleges and universities will start in September 2020, which marks around 2-month delay in the academic process. This means that the colleges and universities will remain closed during this period and students will miss out on their attendance. To address this, the commission has recommended that students be provided complete attendance for the lockdown period without exceptions. The decision seems to be triggered by the fact that not many students have been able to mark their attendance during the online classes regularly due to lack of connectivity and other issues.

6-Day Week for Colleges and Universities

Another important point that is to be noted by the students from the UGC recommendations is about the extension of working week period to a 6-day week. Prior to this notification, several colleges and universities had adopted 5-day working week, with few colleges operating on alternate Saturdays. However, looking at the time lost due to the national lockdown, the commission has recommended that colleges and universities should adopt 6-day working week and make classes compulsory on all Saturdays with attendance being marked for them.

Online Viva Exam from 16^th to 30^th May 2020

Another important aspect related to UGC Guidelines is that the commission has recommended that viva exam for students should be held in online format to ensure social distancing. In line with this, colleges and universities have been instructed to hold Viva Exams as well as internal assessment from 16^th May to 30^th May 2020.