A panel of academics has suggested that regular internal exams should be introduced in undergraduate and postgraduate courses as part of measures to improve quality of learning among students.

The university concerned now conducts semester-based or yearly examinations in courses of higher learning. The concept of internal examination (IE) is limited to select institutes.

The committee headed by Bharati Vidyapeeth vice-chancellor Prof. M.M. Salunke suggested that universities should give 30 per cent weightage to internal exams at the undergraduate level with 70 per cent weightage for the university-conducted test.

For postgraduate courses, the corresponding ratio should be 40:60, the panel recommended.

The University Grants Commission, which had set up the committee on evaluation reforms, uploaded the suggestions on Saturday on its website and sought feedback from stakeholders by March 9.

The higher education regulator would examine the panel’s report before the suggestions are prescribed for institutes.

Prof. Furqan Qamar, secretary-general of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) and part of the 10-member expert committee, said all leading international universities followed a system of 100 per cent internal assessment.

“The international practice is teacher-based internal assessment. The teacher decides how and when to evaluate the student. This is a proven model globally. The IITs and the IIMs have an internal evaluation system,” Qamar told The Telegraph.

The panel in its report suggested that teachers should assign students projects, make them write essays, participate in tutorials, workshops, seminars and laboratory work and even peer review.

The IE weightage, the committee added, should be gradually increased to 50 per cent.

There are 900 universities in the country and 40,000 affiliated colleges that offer education in the general stream. The university concerned conducts exams, evaluates papers and declares the results.

According to the panel’s report, the existing pattern of semester or yearly exams was more a test of memory skills while the traditional method of inviting select experts to set question papers resulted in repetitive questions. Most of the time, the panel said, the questions don’t expect students to use their analytical skills and most of those graduating from the system lack the desired levels of knowledge.

Prof. Qamar said two conditions must be satisfied for the IE model to succeed — quality teachers and size of class for effective learning but did not specify what the number of students in a class should be.

Some Indian universities have tried the IE model but the outcome is yet to be assessed by any agency.

Delhi University had introduced a provision for setting aside 25 per cent of the marks for internal exams about ten years ago, the break-up being 10 per cent each for projects and assignments and the internal test and five per cent for attendance.

“The internal assessment has given mixed results,” said Rajiv Ray, president of the DU Teachers Association.

The panel recommended preparing a question bank by involving all teachers instead of getting question papers set by select experts to bring in more diversity.

Ray said DU had introduced a question bank a decade ago but it did not work out because of problems in selecting questions.

The committee suggested introducing relative grading. The system of absolute grading followed now corresponds to the marks obtained by a student. Relative grading refers to a student’s performance compared to his peers.

The panel touched on credit transfer in case students seek transfer to another university but said all universities must have a homogenous standard to measure credit value.

The committee stressed on timely declaration of results and suggested expanding the practice of holding on-demand exams — or exams whenever a student wants — for those who want to appear in the distance mode. Some distance-mode institutions like Ignou have already introduced on-demand exams.