JNU Will Alter Academic Calendar To Compensate For Loss Of Classes: Vice-Chancellor
Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Professor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar informed students that the annual academic calendar will be slightly altered to compensate for loss of classes.
Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Professor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar informed the students that the annual academic calendar will be altered to compensate for the time lost due to COVID-19 pandemic. During an online meeting with the faculty members to discuss the COVID-19 preparedness of the University and inform students about the phased opening of different academic centres, Professor Mamidala ensured the students that university faculty has been following all the COVID-19 guidelines and highlighted the role of COVID-19 monitoring committee formed to aware the students and teachers about health protocols.
While talking about the online classes conducted by JNU, Prof Mamidala informed, “We have been able to continue our academic process through online mode, several webinars have been conducted by the teachers, we have signed up with providers of such platforms.
Electives are going on, evaluation will be done on the basis of it. We will follow our academic calendar. Due to the COVID-19 situation the academic calendar will be slightly altered. We will try to ensure that we do not stretch the academic calendar beyond the schedule”.
Prof Mamidala said that “The entire university faculty has been following COVID-19 guidelines, the COVID-19 committee have been publishing circulars from time- to-time to spread awareness about the virus. We are holding COVID-19 test camps with the help of local administration. We will hold one more such camp. Several cases were reported inside the campus, some of which are still active and necessary precautions are taken”.
Responding to a student’s query on online classes one of the faculty members said, “The whole idea is to compress some of the courses and conduct the whole system online. We are trying to compress the courses effectively and students will also take extra time to teach you.”
Prof Mamidala mentioned about the University’s scholarship scheme as he ensured that the scholarships will be distributed as quickly as possible and they will get further clarification on this by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and inform the students.
Further the University has clarified that the central administration has not offered a course list for MA Geography Semester 1 and all the educational centres have uploaded a course list but students will have to wait for their enrollment numbers.
One of the faculty members clarified on the phase wise opening of the University as he said, “We are trying to get maximum students to campus so they start their research on time. More than 50% of students are doing research. But as per the government guidelines, students and faculty who want access to laboratories, they will be allowed to attend physical classes. On the basis of it, we had formed the phase wiser admission to the students including the terminal PhD students who had to submit their thesis till December 31, 2020”.
The hostellers were also informed that they can collect their important documents or personal stuff left inside their rooms after contacting the internal hostel administrations headed by the dean of students.
The University had been allowing students to reenter the campus in four phases while giving priority to final-year science students undertaking practical classes. From December 21 onward, persons with disabilities (PwD) studying PhD courses were also allowed to take physical classes.
