Mahatma Gandhi University will continue with the existing April-May summer vacation at its affiliated colleges instead of the split vacation in November and May proposed by the Kerala State Higher Education Council.
The Higher Education Department had recently authorised the Syndicates of the State universities to determine whether they would like to replace the April-May annual vacation with the split vacation system.
The council had mooted the idea as part of the proposed implementation of a standardised academic and examination calendar for universities. It had suggested a split vacation in November and May in place of the April-May annual vacation.
People close to the development at Mahatma Gandhi University told The Hindu that majority of the teachers favoured the existing pattern of vacation in April-May.
Water shortage
The affiliated colleges may find it difficult to function in April and May because of the severe water shortage in many regions during that period, they said.
As per the council’s proposal, the academic year for colleges and departments under the university will begin on June 1 and end on May 31 the next year once the split vacation is in place. The academic year will consist of two semesters of six-month duration each. The duration of odd number semesters will be from June to November each year. Each semester will have a minimum of 450 contact hours distributed over 90 working days, inclusive of examination days, within the 18 five-day academic weeks, according to the proposal.
Mahatma Gandhi University authorities claimed that the publication of results and the conduct of the centralised valuation camps have been streamlined after implementing a series of steps in recent years.
Valuation camps
“By declaring holidays for the undergraduate classes for 10 days in November, we have been able to hold the centralised camps and ensure the timely release of results without affecting the mandatory requirement of working days for each semester,” they said.
Mahatma Gandhi university had implemented the split vacation pattern in November and May in 2011 as part of the implementation of the regulations under the then choice-based credit semester and grading scheme in its affiliated colleges. The duration of odd number semesters (1,3,5) was fixed from June to November every year while the duration of even number semesters (2,4,6...) was from December to May. The system got shelved later and the April-May summer vacation pattern was restored.
