UGC releases guidelines to conduct online internship for students amid lockdown

Amid extension of lockdown over coronavirus outbreak, the University Grants Commission has directed the heads of the various institutions and universities in the country to make arrangements for students to take up online internships or activities. The UFC issued a circular in continuation of the orders passed on April 29, 2020, regarding the examinations and academic calendar.

According to the letter released, the UGC has made it clear that these guidelines are advisory and directed the universities to plan their activities keeping in mind over the safety and interest of the students giving high priority to the health. The circular is available on the official website of the UGC - ugc.ac.in where the students can also check the official notification through the direct link provided below.

The guidelines released by the UGC provide a framework for the internship and other related initiatives of the UGC. It also added that the universities and colleges had to take the following measures for the internship and other associated activities keeping in mind the present situation of COVID-19 lockdown across the country.

The guidelines include allowing the students to take up online internships/ activities such that the events shall be carried out in the digital mode or otherwise from home itself, making the students work as interns in the ongoing projects and delay of the start of the internship programme and reduce the period of the internship by joining assignments and other academic work along with it.

On the other hand, as per the UGC Guidelines issued last week, which states that the term examinations will be conducted in July 2020 where the intermediate semester students will be graded based on the internal assessment of previous two years academics. The notification stated that the examinations be conducted where the COVID-19 situation normalizes.

While the notification points out that the college session for the already enrolled students will begin in August 2020 while the fresh batch of students will begin classes from September 2020. It is learnt that the guidelines issued by the UGC have also asked the universities to adopt efficient and innovative methods of conducting examinations by reducing the duration of the examinations from 3 hours to 2 hours and conduct the examinations in the online or offline mode as per the rules and regulations.