DU to open for final-year students from Sept 15
As part of its phased reopening plan, the Delhi University (DU) has decided to resume practical lab sessions for its final year undergraduate and postgraduate students from 15 September with a maximum of 50% capacity, the varsity said in a new order on Monday.
However, it stated that only a limited number of experiments/ exercises/practicals may be selected that are considered essential for the semester.
The order further informed said that students do not necessarily need to physically be present at the campus and online classes will continue for theory subjects. The university requires all teaching and nonteaching staff of all colleges to be fully vaccinated at the earliest. Further, all students entering the campus should be vaccinated with at least one dose.
“Although both doses of Covid-19 vaccine are essential for hostel students, ensure that the residents have at least one dose of vaccine,” the order read.
It said if the sitting arrangements in libraries are not adequate in accordance with Covid protocols, then libraries “may at least allow the issuing of books to the students on a regular basis”.
“The colleges/departments/ centres may also consider giving prior date - time - slot appointments to the students before allowing them to visit the library in order to avoid overcrowding,” it said.
The order has put the onus on the head of the institution to decide whether final year students are allowed to join for academic consultation and placement purposes.
“However, it should be ensured that students not more than 50% of the sitting capacity should be present at any point
of time,” it said.
“In the case of common premises being shared by morning and evening colleges, the principals of both the colleges will work out a conducive time table and will also share the resources optimally for the smooth conduct of teaching and learning activities,” it added.
The order said any plan of transition to offline mode must take into account the prevailing conditions and the specific requirements of the institutions concerned, “allowing it to deal with any eventuality arising due to the COVID-19 pandemic”.
“However, keeping the safety concerns as the utmost priority it was also considered necessary to transit into the blended (online-offline) mode of teaching and learning in a phased manner,” it read.
Phased reopening plan
DU acting vice-chancellor PC Joshi on Wednesday had said that the university would reopen in a phased manner as the safety of students was a primary concern.
Following a marked improvement in the Covid situation, the Delhi government had last week announced that schools for classes 9 to 12, colleges and coaching institutions would reopen from September 1.
In the first week of August, the DU had issued an official notification announcing that it would hold physical classes for science stream students in view of a decline in coronavirus cases, following which a section of teachers had expressed displeasure over the university’s decision to call students to campus.
The university had later deferred its decision, with DU registrar Vikas Gupta saying that the Delhi Disaster Management Authority had not issued any guidelines on reopening of campuses.