Tag Archives: ugc

CUET 4th Phase exam cancelled in 13 centres

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The first and second shift examinations of the fourth phase of the CUET (UG) entrance test held on Wednesday were cancelled for 13 centres, affecting 8,693 candidates due to technical reasons, said UGC.

The new date for the examinations is likely to be August 25, said UGC Chairman M. Jagadesh Kumar.

The examination was conducted for 1,45,885 candidates in two shifts on Wednesday but cancelled due to some unavoidable technical reasons in 13 centres.

Out of 1,45,885 candidates in both shifts, Uttar Pradesh had the maximum number of candidates (44033), followed by Delhi with 25,131 students. The examinations were conducted in one centre each in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Daman and Diu, Goa, Leh, Ladakh, Manipur, Mizoram, Puducherry and Tripura.

The entrance test was conducted across 245 cities, which even included remote cities like Navsari, Itanagar, Barpeta, Nalbari, Araria, Arrah, Begusarai, Bettiah. , Bhabua, Buxar, Jammu, Samastipur, Bilaspur, Deoghar, Kargil, Leh, Morena, Behrampur, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Sri Ganganagar, Ballia, Basti, Chandauli, Ghazipur, Mau, Sonbhadra, Srinagar (Uttarakhand).

Apart from Wednesday, the fourth phase of the CUET (UG) is also to be held on Thursday and Friday. Admit cards were issued to the candidates for these examinations last week. A total of 3.72 lakh candidates will appear for the exam in the fourth phase. So far around 6.31 lakh students have appeared for the CUET (UG) examinations.

The CUET (UG) admissions will be given to undergraduate courses in a total of 91 universities, including all central universities in the country. The first phase of CUET UG examinations started on July 15. These examinations will continue till August 30.

According to the UGC chairman, most of the candidates have been given cities of their choice. Despite this, there are about 11,000 candidates who could not be given the exam centre or city of their choice. Examinations of all such students have been scheduled for August 30.

The candidates who could not appear in Phase 2 examinations held on August 4, 5, and 6 either due to technical reasons or due to cancellation of the examination centre will be allowed to appear in examinations to be held from August 24 to 30. The admit cards of these students will be issued on August 20, said the UGC.

NEP 2020 Highlights; ‘No One to be Left Behind,’ Says Minister

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India’s Union Minister for Human Resource Development Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’ has unveiled the National Education Policy 2020 aimed at bringing transformational reforms in school and higher education systems in the country.

Speaking at media briefing in New Delhi Wednesday, after Cabinet gave its approval to the New Education Policy 2020, the HRD Minister said that the NEP was drawn up after consultation and discussion process. He said 2.25 lakh suggestions have been received after the draft was placed in public domain for consultations.

Nishank said that this National Education Policy 2020 will bring transformational reforms in both school and higher education sectors. He said that NEP2020 will ensure universal access to high-quality Early Childhood Care & Education across India. “We will focus on developing social capacities, sensitivity, good behaviour, ethics, teamwork and cooperation among children through a joyful pedagogy,” he added.

The new NEP will replace 34-year-old National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986. MoS for HRD Ministry Sanay Dhotre said that the NEP 2020 is most comprehensive, radical and futuristic and does not recognise any barrier in bringing quality and outcome-based education to each and everyone. It now includes children during their most foundational years, that is 3-5 years, for their care and education.

Critical thinking, experiential and application-based learning, flexibility in learning, focus on life skills, multidisciplinary, and continuous review are some of the salient features of this policy, he noted. Bringing back 2 crore out-of-school and drop-out children and universalisation of school education from 3 years onwards — reflect commitment to the philosophy of ‘no one to be left behind’, he said.

Here are the Highlights of NEP 2020:

1. 10+2 board structure will be dropped

2. New school structure will be 5+3+3+4

3. Upto 5 pre school, 6 to 8 Mid School, 8 to 11 High School , 12 onwards Graduation

4. Any Degree will be 4 years

5. 6th std onwards vocational courses available

6. From 8th to 11, students can choose subjects

7. All graduation course will have major and minor. A science student majoring in Physics can choose Music as minor.

8. All higher education will be governed by only one authority

9. UGC and AICTE (technical and MBA education) will be merged

10. All University, government, private, Open, Deemed, Vocational institutions will have same grading system and rules.
11. New Teacher Training board will be setup for all kinds of teachers, no state can change

12. Same level of Accreditation to any collage. Based on rating, colleges get autonomous rights and funds

13. New learning program for parents to teach children up to 3 years at home and for pre-school 3 to 6

14. Multiple entry and exit from any course

15. Credit system for graduation for each year. If a student takes break, he can come back again to complete course

16. All school exams will be semester wise twice a year

17. The syllabus will be reduced to core knowledge of any subject

18. More focus on student’s practical and application knowledge

19. For any graduation course, if student completes only one year he will get a basic certificate, if he completes two years, then he will get Diploma certificate and if he completes full course, then he will get degree certificate. No year loss for any student.

20. All the graduation courses in Universities will be governed by single authority.

UGC halts mushrooming, misleading ‘universities’

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Following the supreme Court directive, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has put an end to often misused nomenclature ‘university’ by private educational institutes and asked them either to drop the word immediately.

In its directive dated Nov. 29, 2017, UGC secretary PK Thakur wrote to 29 such institutes asking them to respond by 4 pm on Thursday, Nov.30, 2017. Out of these 29, 22 institutes do not have ‘University’ tag in the name notified by the Government, while others have been asked to change the name soon.

Some of the misleading varsities in nomenclature include Symbiosis International University in Pune, Christ University in Bengaluru, Jain University, Maharishi Markandeshwar University and Lingaya’s University, which are given the status of deemed to be university status.

Thakur told them to immediately discontinue with the name of the Deemed to be University using the word ‘University’ and revert back to the name notified by the Government of India.

With this Christ University has to change its name to Christ institute while Manipal University should revert to its original registered name as Manipal Academy of Higher Education and TERI University as TERI School of Advanced Studies.

The Supreme Court on Nov. 3, asked the UGC to stop deemed-to-be universities from using the word “University” in their names. Accordingly, the UGC on Nov. 10 directed 123 Deemed-to-be-Universities to drop the word ‘University’ from their names, which is in violation of the Section 23 of the UGC Act.

Terming non-compliance of the orders very serious, the UGC said,”It has been decided to give a last chance to the Institution Deemed to be University to immediately discontinue with the name of the Deemed to be University using the word ‘University’ and submit an alternative proposal as requested vide above UGC letter. Failure to comply with these directions would amount to violation of the UGC (lnstitutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations, 2016 and necessary action would be initiated against the Institution Deemed to be University in accordance with Clause 22.0 of these Regulations which may include recommending wathdrawal of the declaration notifying the institution as an Institution Deemed to be University to the Central Government.”

Quota of OBCs in higher education

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The University Grants Commission(UGC) has circulated the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 and Amendment Act, 2012 to all Central Educational Institutions directing them to implement reservation provisions for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) including admission of OBC students to these Institutions. UGC has issued instruction to all the grant-in-aid institutions funded by the Central Government, except minority Institutions under Article 30(1) of the Constitution of India to implement 27% reservation for OBCs.

As per the information available with the Ministry, during 2015-16, 22 out of 40 Central Universities have successfully achieved the prescribed percentage of student intake from OBC Community. Some of the universities like Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Milia University and some like Mizoram University, Nagaland University, North Eastern Hill University could not achieve the prescribed percentage as these were either minority institutions or were situated in Tribal dominated areas where less OBC students apply for admissions. All Indian Institutes of Technology/National Institutes of Technology/Indian Institutes of Information Technology achieved the stipulated 27 % intake of OBC students. Further, 13 Indian Institutes of Management out of 19 and 22 out of 31 National Institutes of Technology recorded more than the stipulated 27% student intake.

The Government of India and UGC has been continuously monitoring the progress of implementation of Reservation policy for OBCs in admission to courses at all level in Universities/Institutions.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development through UGC instructs Universities/Institutions to furnish periodic reports on the implementation of reservation guidelines for OBCs for admissions to courses at all level and Hostel accommodation for students.

UGC has a dedicated SC/ST/OBC section which monitors effective implementation of the Reservation Policy for all communities including OBCs in admission and recruitment to various posts in universities and colleges.

This information was given by the Minister of State (HRD), Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey today in a written reply to a Rajya Sabha question.

Choice Based Credit System Not to Hamper Academic Liberty, Clarifies UGC

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The UGC has clarified that the introduction of Choice Based Credit System will not in any way hamper the academic liberal environment of the universities, despite rumblings from several institutions and universities in the country.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has been trying to introduce the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) for quite some time and guidelines have been framed for its effective implementation, which were uploaded in the month of November, 2014. The guidelines per se provide a template to the universities to design the CBCS according to their strength while keeping the overall uniformity among the universities, said the UGC.

The UGC said to keep fairness in assessment and evaluation, it has also given template of procedures to be followed so that the standards of education are equally maintained. Numerous communications have been sent to the Vice-Chancellors (VCs) of all Universities for effective implementation of the system, said UGC refuting allegations made by some varsities on the issue.

Eight Workshops have been held all over India in which VCs of all Central, State and Private Universities participated and the Vice-Chancellors of Central Universities, in the Conference held in February 2015, have given their commitment to the Visitor to implement the same from the academic year 2015-16, said the statement.
This system is already in vogue in some private universities and the new endeavour will bring State Universities and Central Universities at par with international standards so that the pass outs of these universities are not at any disadvantage in comparison to the private universities. It may be noted that none of the Indian universities rank within 100 in Times Higher Education Ranks in the world.

To handhold the Universities, UGCsaid it has embarked on an extensive exercise of designing curricula for undergraduate course which would assimilate with the provisions of CBCS. The syllabi by the experts have been put in the public domain for feedback and for subsequent modification before they are finalised.

The syllabi, once finalised, will give leverage to the universities to modify the same to the extent of 30%, which will be enhanced from 20% after feedback,  depending upon their areas of specialisation.
The UGC has clarified that this is not deviation from the earlier practice where inter-university migration required a minimum 70% equivalency as such implying that the syllabi all over India in undergraduate level are similar to the extent of 70%.
Under the CBCS system the elective subjects so offered will only be from the subjects which are available in the Universities or Institutes and it will not add the teaching load of the teachers beyond the norms stipulated by UGC.

Also there will be no inter-institute/inter-college migration or transfer of teachers and the UGC said it will not suppress the academic liberal environment of the university as nothing contrary has been suggested in the template of the syllabi so designed by the experts.