UG freshers face unusual first year

Extraordinary measures put up to fight Covid

It will not be the usual first year for the freshman batch of students for most degree courses in colleges and universities. Extraordinary measures have been put in place as the first year kicks off online across premier Indian engineering institutes as they combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

The International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H), has taken measures like seamlessly conducting the admissions process online and tweaking the curriculum and assessment schemes in response to student feedback.

In addition, the institute has for this session designed a special course with half the number of credits and hours required to complete it, thus earning it the moniker of a ‘half course’.

The current batch has been split into two sections. the first one started their

● INDUCTION OF the first year undergraduate batches will take place online, most likely in the coming week. The classes at JNTUH will begin from December 2, whereas engineering online classes at Osmania University have already begun, while reopening for other courses is scheduled in the coming weeks.

classes on September 14, while the second section began on Saturday. “When the decision was taken to split the batch, there was uncertainty about when the second batch would begin,” said Prof. Jayanthi Sivaswamy, Dean Academics, IIIT-H.

In contrast, universities like Osmania University and JNTUH said that they would not compromise on the credits or coursework. To complete the course, the universities said, it is likely that the summer vacations will be cut to only 15-20 days, instead of the earlier 45-60 days.

Induction of the first year undergraduate batches will take place online, most likely in the coming week. The classes at JNTUH will begin from December 2, whereas engineering online classes at Osmania University have already begun, while reopening for other courses is scheduled in the coming weeks.

In case of the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IIT-H), special measures have been taken to help the incoming students. The institute has enabled bank loans for students to buy laptops, the interest for which will be paid by the IIT.

While online education has proved to be successful for both the faculty as well as students, IIT dean, academics, Prof. Saptarshi Majumdar said that in order to reduce the load, one course from the 1st semester has been shifted to the second semester.