The University Grants Commission (UGC) has revised the academic calendar for the second time this year. First-year students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, will start their classes from November and not September. This delay will obviously spill into the next academic session and delay it as well.
According to the UGC notice that the Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal tweeted on September 22, the admission process for the freshers have to be completed by October 31 and classes should resume two days later on November 1. The first semester exams for these students will begin on March 8, 2021, and wrap up by March 26. The second-semester exams will start on August 9 and end on August 21 next year. The next academic year will begin from August 30.
"In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Commission has accepted the Report of the Committee and approved the @ugc_india Guidelines on Academic Calendar for the First Year of Under-Graduate and Post-Graduate Students of the Universities for the Session 2020-21," Pokhriyal tweeted. "To avoid financial hardship being faced by the parents due to lockdown and related factors, a full refund of fees will be made on account of all cancellation of admissions/ migration of students, up to 30.11.2020, for this very session as a special case," he said.
After the pandemic hit India and country went into lockdown, the UGC had, in April, come out with a new academic calendar for colleges which planned to reopen colleges in September. But the plan did not work as the entrance exams were delayed due to the rising number of Coronavirus cases. The Supreme Court also asked the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to declare the results of compartment exams as soon as possible and coordinate with the University Grants Commission (UGC) to enable around two lakh students passing out in these exams to apply in colleges in the current academic year.
