Raj to convince UGC for exemption from holding college exams

Raj to convince UGC for exemption from holding college exams

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Jaipur: 08.07.2020

Reacting to the UGC directive to hold exit exams in college and universities, the state higher education department on Tuesday said they will try to convince the regulatory body to allow states to take a call on holding the undergraduate and postgraduate exams. The department which had already announced the cancellation of the UG/PG exams due to the Covid-19 situation in the state is in a fix as the UGC directions are just the opposite.

“Our department will examine the UGC guidelines. At some time, we will apprise UGC about the Covid-19 situation in the state and will convince them to give us exemption from holding exams. I am sure they will listen to us and other states where the situation is worse than us,” said Bhanwar Singh Bhati, state higher education minister.

Defending the move of cancellation of exams, Bhati said that they took the decision after evaluating that the situation doesn’t look favourable for holding exams in the next one or two months. “Students were under severe stress over appearing in the exams under the strict rules of social distancing. Even thousands of students have to travel to appear in the exams making them vulnerable to the infectious disease. We wanted to give them clarity that they should prepare for the upcoming session,” said Bhati.

The UGC guidelines said that exams will be held in September.

Our department will examine the UGC guidelines. At some time, we will apprise UGC about the Covid-19 situation in the state and will convince them to give us exemption from holding exams. I am sure they will listen to us and other states where the situation is worse than us

BHANWAR SINGH BHATI

State higher education minister

Delay in exams may hit placements

Delay in exams may hit placements

Preeti.Biswas@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad:  08.07.2020

The UGC move to postpone university exams till September-end has left students and college managements jittery as delayed exams will result in delayed campus placements.

Colleges are now negotiating with firms over joining dates. “We are now planning to issue provisional degrees so that students can join their jobs,” said NLN Reddy, head, placement cell, Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology. Students in colleges where campus placements were to begin by June-July fear that by the time their exams end, firms may revoke their offers. “During the lockdown, 30% firms revoked offer letters. We doubt if we will have our jobs,” said Sohailuddin, a final year BTech student.

All eyes are now on the state higher education department as it is set to submit its response to the high court on the academic calendar and the university exams on Thursday.

Meanwhile, many students opposed the UGC’s move. MANUU students’ union has decided to write an open letter to the Centre.

Medicos demand PG eligibility relaxation

Medicos demand PG eligibility relaxation

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:  08.07.2020

Candidates seeking admission to postgraduate (PG) medical programmes are demanding relaxations in the eligibility criteria, on the lines of the recent changes made for postgraduate dental students.

The Dental Council of India recently lowered the eligibility criteria for master’s in dental surgery (MDS) program mes.

According to the revised criteria, candidates in the open category who have scored in the 31th percentile in the PG NEET entrance exam will be eligible for admissions, against the 50th percentile required earlier.

The Medical Students Association recently wrote to the Medical Council of India to relax eligibility criteria for MD and MS programmes. The association members felt that as many PG medical seats are vacant in several states, revising admission criteria would help fill them up.

The students are demanding a lowering by about 18 percentile in every category.

The admissions process for PG medical and dental courses are under way.

Vacant seats have been returned to states after admissions for all-India quota seats.

The second round of admissions for PG medical and dental programmes in the state was completed recently, with 20 seats remaining vacant in MD and MS courses and 21in MDS.

The admissions round, completed on June 6, saw the allocation of 1,550 seats in MD and MS courses and 250 seats for postgraduate dental studies.

After the recent decision by the ministry of home affairs to allow colleges to hold final-year exams, students are also demanding that universities first conduct exams for PG medical and dental students. The Medical Council of India (MCI) has directed all varsities to complete PG medical and dental exams by July end.

State to let varsities decide on exams

State to let varsities decide on exams

UGC Says Terminal, Final Semester Tests To Be Held By Sept End

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:  08.07.2020

After the University Grants Commission (UGC) issued its revised guidelines, universities in Gujarat are likely to issue examination schedules soon.

The state government is planning to issue fresh directives letting universities take the final call on holding examination for final-semester undergraduate students as well as second and fourth semester postgraduate students.

“We will study the UGC guidelines and ask the varsities to take a decision on how they want to conduct the terminal and final semester exams,” said Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, state education minister.

The new guidelines released by the UGC on Monday said that terminal semester and final-year examinations are to be conducted by universities and institutions by the end of September in pen and paper, online or blended (online + pen and paper) modes.

In May, the state government had announced that terminal examinations for all varsities and institutions in Gujarat would be held from June 25. The government had to reverse this after many varsities called off the examinations due to protests from students. Earlier this month, the state government said it had decided to postpone all the exams till further directions from the Centre.

“We are ready to conduct the exams and are waiting for further directions from the state education department,” said Navin Sheth, vice-chancellor at Gujarat Technological University. The varsity, which had begun preparations to hold its theory exams from July 2, had to call them off at the eleventh hour.

Universities and schools across the country have been closed since March when the central government announced a countrywide classroom shutdown to contain the novel coronavirus.

According to the commission’ guidelines, intermediate semester students will be evaluated on internal assessments.

If a final-year student is unable to take an examination, the candidate may be given opportunity to appear in special examinations, which may be conducted by the university as and when feasible, the guidelines state.

The guidelines says that the students of terminal semesters or final year students having backlogs should compulsorily be evaluated by conducting examinations.

“Academic evaluation of students is a very important milestone in any education system. The performance in examinations gives confidence and satisfaction to the students and is a reflection of competence, performance and credibility that is necessary for global acceptability,” the UGC said.

“Performance in examinations gives confidence to the students and is a reflection of competence and credibility that are necessary for global acceptability”

University exams: After UGC order, Haryana to consult VCs

SEPT DEADLINE

University exams: After UGC order, Haryana to consult VCs

Team TOI

Chandigarh:  08.07.2020

The Haryana higher education department on Tuesday announced to take a call on exams of terminal years of various courses after consulting vice-chancellors and other stakeholders. The announcement came after a communication by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to all universities to mandatorily hold exams of terminal year in September.

Last month, succumbing to pressure from student organisations, including National Students Union of India (NSUI), INSO, and a union affiliated with Indian National Lok Dal, the government had cancelled terminal exams. NSUI had even moved the Punjab and Haryana high court after the higher education department announced to conduct exams of all classes in July. Later, the department had announced to hold exams only for students of terminal classes. This too was challenged and the government ten announced to do away with exams. “We have received the communication. We will consult vice-chancellors and take a final call accordingly,” said

Ankur Gupta, the principal secretary and financial commissioner (higher education).

NSUI Haryana president Divyanshu Budhiraja said, “In this situation (when there is spike in Covid-19 cases in the state), the amended UGC guidelines are akin to mental harrasment of students. When MLAs, MPs and bureaucrats are not feeling safe and not even suggesting to open Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and state legislative assemblies, why is the government playing with the health of students?” He said the Haryana government should stand by its decision to not conduct exams.

ABVP state general secretary Sunil Jaglan said, “We welcome the order as exams are the only way to find out deserving candidates. But still they should be conducted after we get a relief from this pandemic,” he said. In Hisar, GJUST vicechancellor Professor Tankeshwar Kumar said, “The UGC has issued a guideline, not an order. Whether to hold exams or not, it will be decided only after the state government’s takes a decision,” he said.

Sirsa based Chaudhary Devi Lal University vice-chancellor professor R B Solanki also added that the university would abide by the the state government’s decision. On the same lines, Maharishi Dayanand University in Rohtak would go by the state government directions on conducting exams.

Haryana freezes DA at current rate till July ’21

Haryana freezes DA at current rate till July ’21

Manvir.Saini@timesgroup.com

Chandigarh:  08.07.2020

The Haryana government on Monday ordered freezing of dearness allowance for 4.29 lakh government employees and pensioners till July 2021.

The decision come after the state government recently froze leave travel allowance (LTC) of its employees. “In view of the crisis arising out of Covid-19, it has been decided that additional instalment of dearness allowance payable to the Haryana government employees and dearness relief to the Haryana government pensioners, due from January 1, 2020 shall not be paid,” according to a circular released by the Haryana finance department on Monday evening.

Notably, the decision will on average cost a government employee in the range of Rs 50,000 to Rs 100,000 for the period of oneand-a-half year.

Haryana has passed a budget of Rs 142,343 crore this year in February. For the 2020-21Budget, a provision of Rs 36,012 crore was made for salary and pension of the state government employees. With the freeze on payment of DA, the Haryana government would save to the tune of Rs 3,600 crore after calculating DA/DR instalment of January 2020 at 4% and presumptive additional 4% instalments of July 2020 and January 2021.

There are three lakh government employees and around 1.2 lakh government pensioners in Haryana. The state government’s decision will adversely impact all of them but the worst affected would be the employees due to retire in the next three quarters. The Union government had similarly in April announced its decision to freeze DA of 1.13 crore central government employees, including defence personnel, civil and paramilitary employees.

The employee unions have termed the state government’s decision as a dictatorial order. “Initially, we contributed Rs 110 crore from our salaries. Then the government froze our LTC. Now this anti-employee diktat,” said Subhash Lamba, the president of Sarv Karamchari Sangh, an umbrella body of the state government employees. “In April, we had met the government and suggested it should to do away with the contract system and increase levies on corporate houses and big businessmen to recover its losses. We had even suggested the use of National Pension Scheme (NPS) funds for Covid relief or to meet expenses. But, this government always had an anti-employee mindset.”

‘WHAT DOES GOVT WANT TO PROVE?’

Senior leader and chief spokesperson of Congress Randeep Singh Surjewala demanded restoration of DA and described the state government’s decision as an inhuman diktat. “What does the Manohar Lal Khattar-led government want to prove by not giving the DA/DR of Haryana employees and pensioners within 100 days of presenting the budget?” he asked. Surjewala also described the BJP-JJP as “karamchari virodhi sangh”, saying people had already suffered blows of economic slowdown, coronavirus pandemic and inflation. “The anti-employee face of the BJP-JJP government stands fully exposed. An employee getting basic pay of Rs 30,000 per month would lose Rs 43,200 and an employee getting Rs 50,000 per month would not get the due installment of Rs 72,000, if we presume the same as 4% additional DA/DR for the subsequent period of 12 months also,” he added

PU still to take final call on holding exams

PU still to take final call on holding exams

Key Meeting Does Not Help, VC Told To Take The Decision

Aarti.Kapur @timesgroup.com

Chandigarh:

Panjab University (PU) is in a fix on whether to conduct exams or not as a decision eluded even after more than an hour-long meeting of top brass with the vicechancellor (VC) on Tuesday.

Student parties are vociferously demanding that exams be cancelled, when the Centre has announced that they should be held.

Sources said officials asked the VC to take the final call. They pointed out if the exams were conducted in September, admissions will take place in October and the session started by December — an unfeasible schedule. Officials said if the admissions are delayed, the university will face a financial crunch as no fee will be deposited.

The point that Punjab had already announced cancellation of exams on Saturday too cropped up in the meeting. Colleges affiliated to PU in seven districts of the state have more than two lakh students.

A PU spokesperson issued a statement that the authorities went through the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines on exams and admissions and is preparing a plan.

A joint delegation of student organisations met officials, demanding the immediate cancellation of the exams. They strongly criticised the “irresponsible” decision of the central government. They complained that if the university wants to hold online tests, how can students living in Ladakh, Kashmir, Srinagar and other regions, where there is no Internet facility, can appear. Students who come from backward and rural areas have neither a laptop nor access to a cyber cafe, they said. Secondly, they said, if PU is thinking of holding exams, students coming from other states will face many difficulties in reaching the centres.

Members of NSUI sat on a chain hunger strike at Congress Bhawan, Sector 35, against the decision to conduct the final-year exams as per the UGC guidelines. Panjab University Campus Student Council vice-president Rahul Kumar said conducting exams in this scenario will not be beneficial for students.

SAY NO TO EXAMS: Members of the NSUI sit on a chain hunger strike at Congress Bhawan in Sector 35, Chandigarh, on Tuesday

NO INTERNET

Students complained that if the university wants to hold online tests, how can students living in Ladakh, Kashmir, Srinagar and other regions, where there is no Internet facility, can appear.

Poor internet in home states: PEC students can stay on campus

Chandigarh: Hostellers of Punjab Engineering College (PEC), who face problem of poor internet connectivity in their home states, can stay on the campus for the next academic session. A draft plan on the same was shared by PEC director in a meeting with the board of governing members on Tuesday. Sharing through a presentation, Dheeraj Sanghi, director, PEC, stated that a special committee, which was constituted by the senate to chalk out a plan for the next academic session, conducted a survey. Sources said there are around 70 students, who do not have access to internet facility. Sources said the institution will draft standard operating procedures (SoP) for staying in hostel and every student has to follow it. Students who will come in hostels will be qurantined in thier rooms for 14 days. One student will get one room. The details of SoPs will be chalked out soon. Another issue which was discussed in the meeting was about the recent NIRF ranking. The board of governors was informed about the recent withdrawals of job offers to students, but the institute has made alternative arrangements by holding another placement drive.