UGC nod to hold finals in Oct

Kolkata: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has given the Bengal government the nod to conduct final semester examinations for colleges and universities in the month of October. Principal Secretary of state Higher Education department Manish Jain on September 2 had written to UGC seeking permission to allow the state to hold terminal semester examinations from October 1 to 18 .

"UGC has given us the nod to go ahead with the final semester examination as per schedule of the state government and we have been advised to come out with examination schedule as early as possible, " said a Vice Chancellor of a city based university .

Education minister Partha Chaterjee on August 31 had announced that the end semester examinations for undergraduate and postgraduate students will be held between October 1 and 18 . Some universities had already announced its examination schedule following the state's announcement while some others like Jadavpur University, Rabindra Bharati University etc were waiting for the consent of the UGC in this regard as mandated by the Supreme Court in its August 28 order.

The apex court had said that if any state or union territory, in exercise of the jurisdiction of Disaster Management Act 2005 decides it is not possible to hold examinations by September 30, as per UGC's July 6 advisory, it can seek the nod of UGC for revised dates.

Calcutta University has already announced that examinations will be held between October 1 to 18 while Jadavpur University will hold the same between October 1 and 10.

Rabindra Bharati University has sought feedback from different departments about holding of final semester examinations by the ongoing week. " We will be holding Executive Council (EC) meeting next week and finalise the schedule, " said Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury, Vice Chancellor of RBU.