The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)

UGC gives nod to universiti­es to admit students twice a year, DU says good idea

THE UNIVERSITY Grants Commission (UGC) has allowed higher education institutio­ns to admit students twice a year.

While earlier regulation­s allowed students to be admitted only during July-august, the UGC’S recent decision means that students can now be admitted in January/february and in July/august from the upcoming academic session.

The UGC decision leaves it to the institutio­ns to decide if they want to offer admissions in both the cycles or just one, and this will depend on their infrastruc­ture and faculty.

The UGC has said that biannual admissions are not mandatory, but the decision now provides “flexibilit­y” to institutio­ns that might want to “increase their student intake and offer new programmes in emerging areas”.

UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar told The Indian Express, “Every university offers admissions in July/august. In addition to this, if they wish to offer programmes in January, they are welcome to.”

“The situation can be unique to a particular institutio­n; the challenges can vary from institutio­n to institutio­n. The UGC provides the broader regulatory framework enabling the institutio­ns to work out the details themselves and implement it if they think they can,” he said.

On whether universiti­es may now be able to offer admissions to different sets of courses in the two admission cycles, he said: “It is a choice for them… depending on the infrastruc­ture that is available. For a science programme, if they find that for the students admitted in the July session lab facilities are used in the daytime, they may want to use lab facilities in the evening for the session that began in January, so that there is better utilisatio­n of resources available in universiti­es.”

The UGC first attempted this biannual admission process with open and distance learning (ODL), and online mode programmes.

On why the UGC decided to allow biannual admissions, Kumar said that during the trials in ODL and online, the UGC found that nearly half a million students who would have otherwise waited for one year to join these programmes have got the opportunit­y to join in January itself.

“There is a possibilit­y that even in the physical mode, students who have missed admissions for various reasons in July/august, will have the opportunit­y to join in January instead of waiting for one full year. It is also a global practice. It also has the potential to increase the GER (Gross Enrolment Ratio) also,” he said.

If universiti­es now intend to begin a second session in January, they will have to get the decision approved in their academic and executive councils, and amendments will have to be made in their institutio­nal regulation­s. This biannual admission system can apply to PHD, postgradua­te and undergradu­ate programmes.

In the case of programmes to which admissions are based on entrance exams, the UGC Chairman said, “For PHD admissions, currently all universiti­es admit in July. We are conducting UGC-NET twice a year. So, universiti­es can now begin to admit twice a year in PHD programmes. For postgradua­te programmes, CUET (PG) is not mandatory, it is only an option and many universiti­es admit based on their own entrance exam or marks in undergradu­ate programmes. Now they can offer biannual admissions in masters programmes”.

Similarly in undergradu­ate programmes, except for Central universiti­es, CUET (UG) is not mandatory for other universiti­es, he said.

“They use a combinatio­n of admission criteria including CUET (UG) scores, their own entrance exam, board exam marks. If any university wants to start UG programmes in a second session, they are free to do it,” he said.

On whether entrance exams may now have to be held twice a year, Kumar said: “Entrance exams are now technology driven. Ideally, if they are conducted twice a year, it will be beneficial to students. One-by-one, we are trying to implement that. Over a period of time, I hope we will have most entrance exams conducted by the NTA twice in a year”.

Delhi University Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh said, “It is a good idea, a very common idea in the western world where many universiti­es are doing this. We are also very open… in PHD, we are already doing it, we are admitting students twice a year. For UG and PG also, we are very open and we will initially implement it in a few programmes and then extend it to other programmes.”

On whether the new admission system is likely to be in place from the upcoming session onwards, he said, “No… admissions have already started, so can’t do it right now.”

Asked about courses for which admissions are based on entrance exams, he said: “We will have to conduct entrance exams twice a year.”