Uttarakhand university and college exams to start from 1 July, says govt; new academic session likely from September

Examinations in colleges and universities in Uttarakhand will commence from 1 July and be completed in a month’s period, said state principal secretary Anand Vardhan. The new admissions will begin from 1 September, Vardhan announced. According to ANI, the Uttarakhand principal secretary mentioned that classes for students will start from 1 August. [caption id=“attachment_5646901” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Uttarakhand is following the guidelines for universities and college exams that were released by the University Grants Commission (UGC) earlier. The UGC had in its guidelines for examinations and academic calendar for the universities stated that in view of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, exams for final semester students will be conducted in the month of July. It had also revealed that the new academic session for freshers may begin in universities from September and in August for students who are already enrolled. “Intermediate students will be graded based on internal assessment of the present and previous semester. In states where the COVID-19 situation has normalised, there will be exams in the month of July. For terminal semester students, exams will be held in July,” the UGC said . The commission had, however, clarified that the guidelines are advisory in nature and individual varsities may formulate their own plans taking into consideration issues pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic. A number of examinations in the country were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. India has so far reported over 3,500 deaths and more than 1 lakh 18 thousand people have tested positive for the deadly virus.