V-Cs agree on common syllabi, test

Updated on: Friday, July 01, 2011

Vice-chancellors of the 12 state universities of Uttar Pradesh have agreed to frame common syllabi of at least 63 subjects taught at the graduation level and have a common entrance test for admission in PhD course. They have also agreed on digitalising evaluation of answer sheets.

At a meeting chaired by Prof H K Sehgal, vice-chancellor Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj University, Kanpur, on Thursday, vice-chancellors arrived at a consensus to place the proposal of common syllabi before the board of studies of their respective universities for approval by July 15. The syllabi of these courses will also be upgraded to meet contemporary demands. The common syllabi will help students for admission in postgraduate courses in different universities and in transfer from one university to another midway between graduation and post-graduation. It will also help teachers in setting of question paper and evaluation of answer sheets of different universities as they will have a common base.

The meeting was called by secretary higher education Avnish Kumar Awasthi and attended by vice-chancellors of Agra, Bareilly, Kanpur, Faizabad, Jaunpur, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Agra and Kashi Vidyapeeth.

It was also decided in the meeting that as per the recommendation of University Grants Commission, universities will hold subject-wise separate common entrance test for admission in PhD courses, which will enable a student to apply for admissions in all the universities through one application form. The common entrance test will be rotated among universities every year. The provision will also prevent inconvenience the students face while travelling from one university to other for admissions in PhD courses. The new provision will also tackle the problem of clashing of dates of entrance tests of various universities.

The meeting also decided that universities will develop 'information management system' to ensure transparency in admissions and examinations. All data related to students and courses will be available in the system, which will be accessible to people free of cost. The task of developing a software for the information management system has been given to a public sector and private sector company. The process to develop the system for six universities is already underway and would be completed by July 31. The money for developing such a system in remaining universities will be released by the state government soon.

The vice-chancellor also agreed to digitalise evaluation of answer-copies as being done by the Kanpur university. The use of computer technology in evaluation helps in early declaration of results. The Kanpur university has successfully implemented the system, which can evaluate 55 lakh answer copies in a short time span. The meeting also discussed issues related to selection of teachers for higher education in the state as per the guidelines issued by the state government on December 31, 2010.

Times of India

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