Bhubaneswar: At a meeting of the State Higher Education Council with the vice-chancellors of different universities in the state here Thursday it was decided that to maintain equity and excellence in higher education, as the state universities will be introducing common choice-based credit syllabus (CBCS) and a common entrance for UG and PG students shortly. The decision was taken with a view to bring in a uniform curriculum to help students here to compete at both the national and international levels.
Parameswaran B, State Higher Education Council project director, said that as per government directions, five sub-committees comprising vice-chancellors of different universities were formed to suggest reforms in higher education.
The sub-committees have given several suggestions, including the common choice-based credit syllabus, common entrance test for UG and PG courses, timely conduct of examinations and other reforms in the universities across Odisha. The Students’ Academic Management System (SAMS) will be roped in for the management of the common entrance examination, said sources.
“We hope that there would be considerable improvement in the overall development of the students. The target is to implement the reforms from 2019-2020 academic session,” said Parameswaran.
Vice-chairperson of the council, Ashok Das stated that the common admission process will be followed to prepare a state-wide merit list so that students will not need to run from one institute to another. After the merit list is prepared, the respective universities can enroll the students, he added.
Utkal University will conduct the common entrance for humanities and social science streams, Sambalpur University for natural sciences, while Berhampur University will prepare the module for entrance examinations in various other streams including commerce, management and affiliated courses, informed Utkal University vice-chancellor Soumendra Mohan Patnaik.
The students need to score a minimum of 45 per cent marks to be eligible to appear for the entrance examination. The final draft for the +3 syllabus will be finalised by next month, sources added.
“Entrance examination and declaration of results will be on particular dates to ensure not a single student is deprived of appearing the test,” said Madhusmita Das, vice-chancellor of Fakir Mohan University.