Students seeking admissions to various under-graduate and postgraduate courses in the state universities can heave a sigh of relief from the ensuing academic year as the state government is planning to chalk out a common academic calendar for all universities.
At present, each university frames its own academic calendar with regard to dates of commencement and closure of admissions, examinations, announcement of results, vacation period. etc.
As a result, the academic calendars of all the universities vastly differ from each other and this creates problems for students seeking admission or migration from one university to another.
Even though the need for having a common academic year for universities with similar academic pro
grammes was being discussed for years, it is taking shape only now. The Governor and Chancellor of Universities, Mr E.S.L.
Narasimhan, had also stressed on the need for a common academic calendar at his maiden VCs’ meet in February 2010 but the same only materialised now. The minister for higher and secondary education, Mr Damodara Rajanarasimha, has convened a meeting with the vice-chancellors of all the universities on January 18 to discuss the issue.
“Chalking out a uniform academic calendar is on the top of the agenda. Some of
our neighbouring states like Karnataka are already implementing this and we will examine all the issues regarding the same at the VCs’ meeting and draw out an action plan,” said Mr Rajanarasimha. The meeting will also deliberate on evolving uniform regulations for admission and migration of students in all the universities.
For instance, setting the minimum marks in the qualifying examination for admission to certain courses differ between universities.
Some universities have made written tests compulsory for admission to a particular course and the marks obtained in the written tests are considered along with the marks secured in the qualifying examination for admissions. In some universities, the admission for a course is based only on the marks obtained in the qualifying exam. The government plans to remove such anomalies by setting uniform admission norms.
Source : DC