Many colleges defer opening, wait for outstation students to return

 Many colleges defer opening, wait for outstation students to return

Some To Resume Offline Mode Today

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SruthySusan.Ullas@timesgroup.com

31.01.2022

Bengaluru: While the government announced reopening of schools and colleges from Monday, many institutions in the city are planning to defer resuming offline classes by a week to allow time to outstation students to return.

On Saturday, the government announced resumption of offline classes from Monday. Many colleges immediately informed students about the development and asked them to plan their journey while giving them a week’s time to get back on campus. “We have already told them to be prepared to come. We will give only a week’s buffer time after the government declaration,” said Fr Abraham V, vice-chancellor, Christ (deemed to be university).

Until then, many colleges plan to continue with the blended mode. “While local students can come to campuses for clarifications or other academic activities, outstation students can report back by next Monday. Until then, the blended mode will continue,” said Raghu R, spokesperson of Mount Carmel College. In an intimation to its students, Maharani Cluster University too said it will reopen on Friday to give sufficient time to outstation students to book return tickets to Bengaluru.

However, some other institutions like Sheshadripuram Degree College, where locals comprise a majority of the students, will start offline classes from Monday itself. “We’ll decide on a blended approach depending on how it progresses,” said HN Meera, principal.

Some other colleges plan to resume on-campus classes gradually. “Our end-semester exams will start on Tuesday and we will reopen for second and third years then. First-year students will continue with online classes as we don’t want a huge rush on campus,” said Paul Newman, principal of St Joseph’s Evening College. “Offline classes in the day college are likely by April as we wait for Covid cases to drop substantially,” he added.

Jyoti Nivas College too plans to continue with online classes. While the government order on reopening of classes has still not been issued, Bengaluru City University said it will issue an order on Monday morning.

Bangalore University said while on-campus classes for second-year students will start from Monday, first-year classes are likely to begin by next week, by when admissions will be complete.