As education in India continues to suffer under the impact of Covid-19, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued guidelines on admissions and examinations for the academic year 2021-22 for all universities and colleges.
The UGC stated in a release that in view of the prevailing pandemic situation, the Supreme Court order on the cancellation of School Board examinations for class/grade-XII; the earlier order of the Supreme Court upholding the UGC’s guidelines of July 6, 2020 regarding terminal semester/ final year examinations; the earlier UGC guidelines on examination and academic calendar dated April 29, 2020, July 6, 2020 and September 24, 2020; and, in the larger interest of students, the following guidelines are being issued.
Admission guidelines
As per the UGC guidelines, the new academic session for universities and colleges will begin by October 1, 2021.
The last date of admissions to first-year courses for the academic year 2021-22 is September 30, 2021. All admission procedure must be completed before the scheduled date.
Higher education institutions can start admission for undergraduate courses once results by the CBSE, ICSE, and other state boards are announced.
In the case of delay in results, higher education institutions can start the academic session by October 18.
Exams guidelines
The UGC guidelines state that by August 31, 2021, universities must complete the terminal semester / final exams (2020-21) by offline or online or blended mode by following COVID-19 SOPs. The relevant documents of the qualifying examination can be accepted up to December 31, 2021.
The UGC guidelines further states that for students of the intermediate semester/year, assessment shall be based on internal evaluation and previous semester as mentioned in the 2020 guidelines
And, higher education institutions can start their academic session (in online/offline/blended mode) as early as possible by following COVID-19 protocol.
Cancellation of admissions
Universities and colleges can refund fees on account of all cancellations of admissions/ migrations of students up to October 31. In case of cancellation or withdrawal of admissions up to December 31, 2021, the entire fee collected from a student would be refunded after deducting around Rs 1000 as a processing fee.
The commencement of the next Academic Session for this batch (2021-22) will begin on August 1, 2022.
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