The universities will formulate their exam policies, based on nature of examinations, aligned with their respective feasibility scenarios and needs of students.
Talking to APP on Wednesday, official sources from the Higher Education Commission (HEC) said that HEC and universities had already reached on a consensus on exam policies, admissions policy, academic quality, and the academic Calendar during the virus pandemic.
According to the sources, all attempts shall be made to protect the academic calendar. The problems faced by graduating students would be addressed, while the HEC would set up an appellate system to follow student complaints.
HEC and Universities were agreed that both had shared objectives, as they want to save the semester, avoid disruption in academic calendar, motivate students to keep learning, and address the issues of graduating students, the sources informed.
“HEC directed universities to formulate and publicly announce transparent policies on how they will conduct examinations at the end of the Corona-affected semester.
HEC had canvassed the approaches being taken by universities all over the world, and had shared the most successful options with universities. However each option involved significant pros and cons. Universities could use any combination of the options as long as they met the minimum standards of readiness and shared the policy publicly.
The universities are bound to formulate a clear policy on how this will be done, and share the policy as well as additional guidelines with students, faculty as well as HEC,” the sources mentioned.
A clear policy is also needed on admissions in the light of the recent decisions by examination boards to announce results on the basis of past exams. Universities were asked to decide how they will evaluate these results in order to make admissions decisions.
HEC will circulate prudential guidelines on exams as well as admissions in order to ensure that the students’ concerns were not ignored and every attempt was made to ensure quality of education, they added.
The sources also informed that HEC Chairman HEC Tariq Banuri while commenting on the issue in last Vice Chancellor Committee has stated that the purpose of examinations is to reward students for actions that will make them successful in their future lives. He was responding to a question whether universities should promote students without any exam.
“Examinations and assessments are an integral part of the teaching process. Attempts to eliminate exams will have severe repercussions for educational quality and student achievement”, he added”.
Originally published at Urdu point