The UGC has also asked the universities to gradually move to a system which would emphasise on continuous internal assessment and reduce the written examination component. It also sent a directive to all universities across the country to introduce a slew of academic reforms which would upgrade the curriculum and evaluation system in the universities to international standards.

“We need to move away from marks and division system in evaluation and need to introduce a grading system, preferably on a 9 point scale, and Cumulative Grade Point Score (CPGS) in order to make our evaluation system at par with best practices,” UGC chairman Sukhdeo Thorat said.

Maintaining that curricular flexibility and students’ mobility across institutions and courses should be given immediate attention, Thorat said these could be addressed by introducing credit-based courses and credit accumulation.

The directive also said admission to all courses should be based on the past academic records of students and/ or their performance in the entrance examination conducted by the university, with due provision for reservations for SC, ST, physically handicapped and other such additional provisions.

The informal methods currently used in some universities for admission to Ph.D. should be discontinued and admissions to these high level research courses should be made formal and transparent, UGC said.

Maintaining that continuous updating and revision of curricula is required, UGC said universities must ensure that the exercise is taken every three years.