Universities across the State are likely to follow a uniform academic calendar from the next year as such a plan has just got the approval of the Karnataka State Higher Education Council.
The aim of having a common calendar is to prevent delays in various processes like admissions and announcing of results and thereby allow students the option of moving from one university to another with least hurdles. “Some universities start their admissions in June; others begin in July. There may also be a delay in declaring the results which would affect admissions to postgraduate courses,” said Prof T C Shivashankara Murthy, vice chancellor, Mangalore University, who chaired a committee that drafted the calendar. “Mobility of students is the primary consideration,” added Murthy.
The common calendar envisages the commencement of admissions to first semester undergraduate courses between July 1 and July 15 and to postgraduate courses from August 1 to August 15.
Other aspects include the commencement of first, third and fifth semester examinations between October 25 and November 10, and for the second, fourth and sixth semesters between November 15 and November 30.
For postgraduate courses, examinations begin from December 10 to December 25 (first and third semester) and between May 10 and May 25 (for third and fourth semesters).“There is at least 15 to 20 days’ time provided for each process that will ensure that everything is completed on time,” said Murthy.
The Visvevaraya Technical University (VTU) and Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences will not come under the ambit of the common calendar.
Speaking to the Deccan Herald, H Maheshappa, vice chancellor, VTU, a member of the committee, explained, “Engineering and medical admissions are based on the Common Entrance Test which may extend to a number of rounds. Moreover, you will also not find a student of BE migrating to another university to do a BSc. In case of VTU, for instance, the academic calendar is completely different from the conventional universities,” he said.