One day after the University Scholarship Commission (UGC) published the guidelines for the new academic calendar for the first year of the 2020-21 academic year, students and universities in the city were unsure of the implementation of the new dates. .
According to the most recent schedule shared by UGC, the new academic session for the current freshman batch should begin in the first week of November; however, following the schedule above, many colleges have already started their freshman batches online.
“Previous UGC guidelines had scheduled the start of the new academic year for all batches for September 2020, so the universities did exactly that and started the online conferences. The University of Mumbai also suggested the same, so now we do not know how these new guidelines will be implemented, ”said Marie Fernandes, Principal of St Andrew’s College, Bandra.
MU had admissions to batches of freshman undergraduate courses in July and August and most colleges had completed all of their vacancies by the end of August.
Many universities that have already completed the orientation process for their students and are ready to start regular classes for their new batch are now confused about the dates and are awaiting clarification from the University of Mumbai.
“Since they are the UGC guidelines, we will have to follow them. Hopefully, the university will clear up our doubts soon, ”said Parag Thakkar, director of HR College.
A MU spokesperson said that the previous varsity circular published in July 2020 in terms of starting the new academic year was based on UGC’s August 2020 guidelines, which stated that classes for all batches should start online. from September. “Our academic team will have to study the new draft of the guidelines before sharing a circular with all affiliated universities,” he said.
The UGC has also stated the fact that the new batch of the first year will end without a summer or winter break until next year to make up for the loss of academic time this year due to Covid-19 and the closure. Several students took to Twitter and other social networking sites to share their dissatisfaction with this rule.
Without clarity in place, some colleges are also concerned about having to follow two separate academic calendars, one for the new freshman batch, and one for the rest of the batches. “We have scheduled the first semester exams for our second and third year lots in December 2020-January 2021 and our goal is to finish the last semester exams in May 2021. But the UGC circular for the first year lots suggests First and second semester exams in March and July respectively, which means that our teachers will be working on the exams for the whole of next year, which is also unfair to them, ”said the deputy principal of a suburban university.
New academic calendar
Admissions must be completed by October 31, 2020
Classes start for new batch (1st semester) November 1, 2020
Preparation break: March 1 to March 7, 2021
Take exams: from March 8 to March 26, 2021
Semiannual recess: March 27 to April 4, 2021
Classes begin (second semester) —April 5, 2021
Preparation break: from August 1 to August 8, 2021
Take exams: from August 9 to August 21, 2021
Semiannual recess: August 22 to August 29, 2021
Start of the next academic year for this batch: August 30, 2021
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