“From which year can biannual admissions be started? Are they applicable to all programs?”

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has approved Indian universities and higher education institutions to organise biannual admission from the academic year 2024-25. The chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), M. Jagadesh Kumar has now given the right to the Indian universities to admit students twice a year to enhance opportunities for students and match the global standards of education.

M. Jagadesh Kumar’s Words, “If Indian universities can offer admission twice a year, it will benefit many students such as those who missed admission to a university in the July-August session due to a delay in the announcement of board results, health issues, or personal reasons,”

He said, that beginning from the academic session 2024-25, Indian colleges and universities will conduct the admission cycle twice a year, the first schedule will begin in July and end in August and the second schedule will begin in January and will end in February. This policy is being launched keeping the challenges faced by students in mind. It will help those students who missed admission into the institutions in the first schedule because of issues like delayed board results, health concerns, or personal circumstances. Enabling biannual admissions this year will help students get admission into the institutions without waiting for the entire session to end.

Initially, universities and colleges only admit students once in an entire year in July-August in regular mode. All the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) follow the same admission cycle once, beginning in July-August and ending in May-June.

And now, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has allowed biannual admissions into the open and distance learning (ODL) institutes and this decision has ultimately helped approximately half a million students to get admission into their preferred programs without waiting for the entire session to end, as per the Hindustan Times reports.

UGC Chairman further added, “After the UGC permitted two cycle admissions in a year for Open and Distance Learning (ODL) and Online modes, as per the information furnished by the HEIs on the UGC portal, in addition to a total of 19,73,056 students were enrolled in July 2022 and an additional 4,28,854 students joined in January 2023 in ODL and online programs.”

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has said that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with adequate infrastructure and teaching facilities will need to utilise this opportunity of biannual admissions. However, for colleges with insufficient infrastructure and teaching facilities, implementing this facility is an option.

Reasons for Launching Biannual Admission in Indian Universities
There are some major reasons why the authority thought of launching biannual admissions. They are as follows:

• The first major reason to launch biannual admissions is to offer students opportunities and match the global standards of the education system.
• The second reason is to offer students a second chance to re-attempt the admission process if, for reasons like board results, health concerns or any other, they missed their registration deadline.
• The third reason is that they wanted students to be provided with another opportunity if they missed the registration last date.
• The fourth and the last most important reason why the commission launched this concept of biannual admission is to avoid waiting for an entire year to end if for any reason students could not register themselves in the first session.