West Bengal to begin new academic session of Undergraduate, Postgraduate levels from Dec 1

In a meeting between Vice- Chancellors of state universities and West Bengal Higher Education Minister Partha Chatterjee on Sunday, it was decided that the new academic session of both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in colleges and universities from December 1.

"As we need to sanitize the institution premises before starting the academic session in full course, we have to take into account the four-five festive days when no work will be possible. So it will be in the fitness of things to start the new sessions from December." Said Mr. Chatterjee, reported by PTI.

He further added that since most universities have already adopted online teaching for the mid-semester courses and providing course materials to students who don't have online facilities, starting the new session won't be hopefully of many problems.

"Still whether the classes will be entirely online or there will also be the offline mode of teaching will depend on the situation at that time," he added.

Mr. Chatterjee said that the decision made during the meeting with the Vice-Chancellors of state universities will be communicated to the Chief



Minister Mamata Banerjee.

"The government will finally announce the dates of the new academic session in UG and PG and all higher educational institutions will start their first-year classes accordingly," Mr. Partha Chatterjee said, reported by PTI.

A Vice-Chancellor of a prominent state university in the city who attended the virtual meeting said that it was initially decided to start the first year undergraduate classes in colleges from November 1 and postgraduate classes from December 1.

Participants at the meeting later pointed out the difficulties to start UG classes in November, and the minister finally decided with the consent of others to begin the new academic session both at PG and UG levels from the same date

"As per the UGC advisory, we have to start the UG and PG classes for the 2020-21 academic session without much delay. Hence it was agreed at the meeting that the classes will commence after the admission procedure gets over," he said.

While admission to the UG level will be over by October 31, the admission procedure at the PG level can be completed only at the end of November.