Finishing Courses at Pvt Univs: UGC allows conditional online grading

Private universities that have completed 70 percent of academic activities of current semester and have been conducting online classes successfully for theoretical courses will be able to evaluate their students via viva and presentations online.  

The University Grants Commission yesterday issued a directive with an option saying that such universities can grade students taking into account their attendances, assignments, presentations, and mid-term exam results held before. They can also take results of previous semester into consideration while preparing results of the current session.

The universities can prepare the results only after confirming that at least 60 percent students are participating in the online classes. All students should be notified at least five or seven days before holding an exam.

"We have issued the directive on taking online classes, holding exams and admission tests against the backdrop of the Covid-19 situation," Fakhrul Islam, UGC private university division director, told The Daily Star.

All private universities have been closed since March 17, and the government has now extended the closure until May 16 to curb the further spread of Covid-19.

On April 27, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said all educational institutions may stay closed until September if the situation caused by the coronavirus outbreak does not improve.

In its directive, the UGC said all private universities will be allowed to evaluate exams of practical and lab courses only after reopening of the universities.

UGC member Prof Dil Afroza Begum, who have overseen the formulation of directive, told this newspaper that all viva should be held individually and without any kind of malpractice.

"We are putting emphasis on transparency and quality of test via viva," she said.

Students who will be not able to take online classes and exams, they should be allowed to take special classes to complete their courses. After that, they will sit for exams with the universities reopening, she added.

The universities will not be permitted to charge any extra from students who are out of online classes and exams.

Commission sources said only 63 universities out of 151 now have online classes. Of them, only four to five are public universities, and the rest are private.

Private universities that have not started online classes should specifically inform the UGC about their plan to complete their current semesters by May 17, said Prof Dil Afroza.

The universities can hold admission tests in June, and the next semester will begin in July, said the UGC directive.

It added that the universities would not put pressure on guardians and students for tuition and other fees during the ongoing crisis. It also asked them to waive and reduce semester fees from students facing financial hardship or give them an option to pay the fees in instalments.

The private university authorities would have to pay salaries to their teachers and staffers regularly, the directive mentioned.

The commission issued the directive in line with the decisions made at a meeting among Education Minister Dipu Moni, UGC top officials, and leaders of Association of Private Universities of Bangladesh (APUB) on the issue on April 30.

The meeting was held as UGC and APUB were at odds over awarding grades to students without holding semester finals, enrolling new students without admission tests, and holding tests online.

On April 10, the UGC rejected an APUB request to postpone its decisions of not allowing grading students without holding semester finals, enrolling new students without admission tests, and holding tests online.

In a letter to the UGC chairman on that day, the APUB chairman said they were requesting the commission to postpone its decisions until holding a discussion with their association.

The commission on April 6 asked private universities to stop assigning their current students grades through online exams and evaluation, and to stop enrolling new students without admission tests amid the closure of educational institutions.