The University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided to allow public universities to hold semester exams for final year students.
This move comes following a virtual meeting of the vice chancellors (VC) of a total of 39 public universities with the UGC on Sunday.
Now the country’s public universities will be able to conduct final exams for both their undergraduate and postgraduate students amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Academic councils of the concerned universities will take all the necessary steps to implement this decision with the aim to negate session jam and make students qualified for sitting in the upcoming BCS exams.
Addressing the meeting, UGC Chairman Prof Kazi Shahidullah said: “The final decision regarding taking exams will be taken by the universities.
“However, the quality of the exams has to be ensured.”
Advising the VCs to avoid any rush, the UGC chief said: “The universities should take the exams keeping in mind their capacity.”
The public university VCs informed the meeting that online education is continuing and the unfinished semesters will be concluded soon.
However, the students are disappointed as exams are not being held, the VCs said, adding: “They [students] are separating themselves from the educational activities of the next semester.”
They also warned the UGC authorities that without exams or assessments, online education will lose its credibility and its quality will also fall
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Meanwhile, the VCs also urged the UGC to submit a letter to the Bangladesh Public Service Commission (BPSC) to extend the application deadline for the recently announced BCS exams.
At the meeting, UGC Member Prof Muhammed Alamgir placed a seven-point recommendation over the semester final examinations and practical classes and assessments at the country’s public universities amid the pandemic, reports UNB.
The first recommendation is that the public universities may take necessary steps as per the decisions of their respective academic councils regarding the semester final examinations of undergraduate and postgraduate students to recover their irreparable losses of education due to the global pandemic of Covid-19.
The second recommendation says that the unfinished practical classes in science, technology, agriculture, medicine, and other disciplines and their assessment should be completed in phases following health rules.
The third recommendation is that the students of the final semesters will be given priority in completing the semester exams, practical classes, and assessments.
The fourth recommendation he mentioned is that the residential halls of the universities should be kept closed as the educational institutes remain closed due to the coronavirus crisis as per government directives.
According to the fifth recommendation, the examinations and practical classes will have to be completed in full compliance with health rules keeping in mind the health protection of the students. For this, students will have to enter their campuses one hour before the examination and practical classes and leave the campuses within one hour after the exam and practical classes.
The sixth recommendation is that the online academic activities of the educational institutes will have to continue due to Covid-19.
The seventh and final recommendation is that the universities will have to properly follow the health safety guidelines issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) to prevent further spread of the deadly virus.
