The examinations scheduled to be held on September 15 and 16 for several courses at SWAYAM portal including undergraduate, postgraduate, non-technical, working professionals among others have been postponed. According to the latest notice by UGC, the delay in conducting these exams has been caused due to “operational reasons and COVID-19″ and will now be held on September 29 and 30.

The notice also stated that, “All universities are requested to factor in revised SWAYAM exam dates while scheduling their respective university exams.” The revised admit cards for these exams were released on September 12 at the official website, swayam.gov.in.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) will be conducting the exams in a proctored mode across the country.

Last month, the University Grants Commission (UGC) doubled the academic credit limit for online courses to 40 percent, which means a student can pick subjects relevant to his or her course online using the SWAYAM platform and gain credits for it. Attending these courses will be equivalent to attending physical lectures in a class, as per the norms. It has over 1900 courses which, as per UGC have been accessed by 50,000 learners.

The UGC has further asked academicians to develop more courses for students to be available at the SWAYAM platform. In the first phase, it is proposed to develop 171 undergraduate level MOOC courses in six subjects – history, political science, commerce, sociology, public administration, and anthropology.

The UGC has asked higher education institutes and academicians across the country to develop “high quality” MOOCs in these areas which can be “comparable to international standards.” More emphasis is being given to online courses because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Source: The Indian Express

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