Bhubaneswar, Sept. 15: The higher education department has called a meeting of authorities of all autonomous colleges of the state on Tuesday to discuss strategies for bringing about reforms in Plus Three examinations.

This follows an exercise by the department seeking suggestions from various quarters to introduce common guidelines for the 32 government and non-government colleges, which follow dissimilar exam schedules. The colleges, at present, conduct exam in different patterns and publish results on various dates leading to inconvenience for students planning higher studies.

“We have received several suggestions for overhauling the exam system in the autonomous degree colleges. Most suggests uniform syllabus and exam timing and a centralised evaluation system. These suggestions will be discussed and common guidelines framed for all of them,” said Mihir Das, officer in charge of the department’s performance tracking cell. An expert committee of the department will consider the opinions before finalising the norms.

He said the reforms were necessary not just to ensure that graduates of the autonomous colleges had a common minimum similarity in terms of courses and exams appeared, but also to enable them to compete with their counterparts from other universities across the country.

Apart from the principals of the autonomous colleges, vice-principals and controllers of examinations have also been instructed to take part in the meet. The authorities are required to furnish details of their autonomy status, student strength, subjects, exam schedule, staffing pattern in the exam cell and fee structure per semester. “We will also explore the possibility of introducing a choice-based credit system in all the colleges,” said Das.