Aligarh Muslim University to Start Session from August

Aligarh: The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has decided to begin the academic session 2020-21 for existing and newly admitted students from August 1, 2020, and September 1, 2020 respectively. The admission and departmental tests for various courses are rescheduled in the month of July/early August 2020, so as to ensure that admissions for the session 2020-21 are completed by August 31, 2020.

It was decided in a meeting of the deans of various faculties, and other university officials under the chairmanship of the Vice Chancellor Prof Tariq Mansoor.

Online teaching, conduct of University examinations and academic calendar for the session 2019-20, and 2020-21 were also discussed.

At the outset, the Vice-Chancellor emphasised the need to safeguard the academic career of the students in view of extraordinary and unprecedented circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic leading to nation-wide lockdown under the National Disaster Act ordered by the Government of India.

He also highlighted the salient points enumerated in the “UGC Guidelines on Examinations and Academic Calendar for the Universities in View of COVID-19 Pandemic and Subsequent Lockdown”.

In order to strengthen the online teaching, it was decided that E-content/e-lab experiments will be prepared by the concerned teachers and uploaded on the website. The use of ICT and online teaching tools shall be encouraged and the teachers shall strive to complete about 25% of the syllabus through online teaching and 75% syllabus through face to face teaching. And each student shall be assigned a faculty advisor who will maintain regular communication with the students.

According to Mr Mujib Ullah Zuberi (Controller of Examinations), online teaching for the session 2019-20 will continue up to May 31, 2020, and the period from June 01, 2020 to June 15, 2020 shall be utilized for finalization of Dissertation / Project Work / E-labs / Completion of Syllabus/ Internal Assessment / Assignment / Reports etc.

The period of lockdown may be treated as ?deemed to be attended? by all the students and their attendance computed accordingly.

For the current session, the continuous evaluation shall have 70% weightage while the final/end-semester examination shall have 30% weightage.

The examinations (including backlog courses) of students in Terminal semester/ Final year for various courses, applicable for Even Semester 2019-20 only, shall be conducted by the University in Offline mode from July 01, 2020 keeping in mind the protocols of “social distancing”.

Evaluation of final/end-semester Theory/Laboratory examination may be done by only internal evaluators in view of Covid-19 pandemic.

It was decided that all students in intermediate semester / year shall be promoted to their respective next higher semester/year.

The examinations of all such students in intermediate semester / year for various courses, including laboratory examinations, shall be conducted by the University in Offline mode during the ensuing semester/year keeping in mind the protocols of “social distancing”. The respective Faculties/Departments will decide the same in consultation with the Controller?s office.

The scheme of “Carry forward” for the subjects in which the student fails/remains absent will be allowed for the courses of the current academic year and any such student will not be detained. However, such students may clear the examination for the course in which he/ she has failed/ remained absent, whenever the examination is held next.

The students may be allowed to improve their grades by offering one additional opportunity to appear for the current semester course(s) in succeeding semesters/ years.

The meeting decided that the period of lockdown shall be treated as ‘deemed to be attended’ by all the Ph.D. students.

The Presentation-cum-interview for admission to Ph.D. (Session 2019-20), may be conducted as per Ordinances/Regulations in June/July, 2020 as per developing situation by giving 10-15 days? notice to the short-listed candidates.

Admission/Departmental Tests for various courses may be re-scheduled in the month of July/ early August, 2020 so as to ensure that admissions for the session 2020-21 are completed by 31.08.2020.

Prof Zuberi told that all these decisions are subject to developing situation and advisory of various competent Public Authorities. “Transitory Ordinances /Regulations / rules required for implementation of the above decisions shall be proposed by the office of Controller of Examinations for necessary action”, he said.

The meeting was attended by Registrar Mr Abdul Hamid, IPS, Deans, Principals and other functionaries of the university.