University Grants Commission (UGC) has released a set of revised guidelines and a new academic calendar today, September 25. Based on the new calendar for the UG and PG courses, the academic session for the 1st year will begin from November 1 and admission process will be completed by October 31.

Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal tweeted the revised UGC guidelines today. The semester examination for the academic year 2020-21 will be conducted from March 8 to March 26 and even semester will begin from April 5,2021.

The even semester exam will be conducted between August 22 to August 29, 2021 and the next academic session will begin from August 30. All institutions have been instructed to finish the admission process, either based on merit or entrance test, before October 31. If needed, provisional admission can be made which will be confirmed later.

The revised calendar is similar to the one previously released on September 21. This updated calendar was released after the Supreme Court asked the UGC and CBSE to work in tandem to make sure that students appearing for the CBSE compartment exam can partake in the admission process. Yesterday, CBSE said to the Court that the compartment result will be declared before October 10.

UGC has said that universities must make a full refund of fees for students who cancel their admission or migrate due to the COVID-19 situation and the resultant financial hardships.

The students must be refunded fully if admission is cancelled before November 30. For withdrawals after this cut-off date but before December 31, institutions can charge 1000/- processing fees and should return the remaining amount.