Indian universities are set to embrace biannual admission like foreign institutes as confirmed by UGC.
Post-pandemic, a lot has been changed in the education system globally. Now, University Grants Commission (UGC) is coming up with new system just like foreign institutes. In this system, students will be getting chance of taking admission twice in a year. In this article, we will discuss about those new changes.
Currently, the universities and colleges admit students in July-August every year, which is a regular mode. In this system, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in India start the academic session in July-August and ends in May-June next year.
The UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar said: “The council took a policy decision to allow Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) who offer programs in regular mode to admit students twice a year, either in Jan/Feb or July/August from this session.” This will be adopted from academic year 2024-25.
Meanwhile, since 2023, the UGC has permitted students to take admission in open and distance learning (ODL) as well as online modes twice (in January and July) during any academic year.
The UGC chairperson said: “After the UGC permitted two cycle admissions in a year for Open and Distance Learning (ODL) and Online modes, as per the information furnished by the HEIs on the UGC portal, in addition to a total of 19,73,056 students were enrolled in July 2022 and an additional 4,28,854 students joined in January 2023 in ODL and online programs.”
This will eventually help students not to waste a full academic year.
Meanwhile, famous foreign universities in USA and UK always follow biannual admission system for a long time.
M Jagadesh Kumar also claimed: “If Indian universities can offer admission twice a year, it will benefit many students. Such as those who missed admission to a university in the July/August session due to a delay in the announcement of board results, health issues, or personal reasons. With biannual admissions in place, industries can also do their campus recruitment twice a year, improving employment opportunities for the graduates.”
“If Indian HEIs adopt the biannual admission cycle, our HEIs can enhance their international collaborations and student exchanges. As a result, our global competitiveness will improve, and we will align with the global educational standards”, the UGC chairperson said.
“Biannual admissions can substantially increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio and make India a ‘Global Study Destination’ as envisioned in National Education Policy (NEP) 2020,” he further added.
To implement to the new system by UGC, institutes need to do lot of administrative works, extensive planning, and smooth resources.
“HEIs can maximize the usefulness of biannual admissions only when they sufficiently prepare the faculty members, staff and students for the transition,” Kumar added.
The UGC believes the HEIs in India have “sufficient infrastructure and teaching faculty” to utilise this opportunity. Meanwhile, the governing body has clarified that new system is not mandatory for all.
Will this bring a radical shift in Indian education system? Only time will tell!
