University of Hyderabad allows phased return of PG students for regular classes

The University of Hyderabad (UoH) has commended the process to allow post-graduate students in phased manner to return to ‘in-person’ classes.

Appa Rao Podile, Vice-Chancellor, UoH, has approved the Task Force recommendation to permit about 148 terminal semester students of the Science Schools and SN School to return to the campus for completion of laboratory/practice courses that have either been left incomplete from the last semester or have been postponed to the final semester. The list of students to return was identified by the respective academic units.

The Task Force, headed by Vinod Pavarala, has been carefully monitoring the current state of prevalence of Covid-19 (including the new variant) and the potential roll-out of vaccination and also following the Unlock guidelines, being issued from time to time by the Government of India and the Government of Telangana.

Further, taking into consideration the risk of the outbreak of pandemic on campus (on the lines of IIT-Madras), limited facilities for quarantine/isolation of students, and UGC guidelines on hostel accommodation, the Task Force has planned for a gradual/phased return of students to the campus.

University has already enabled the return to the campus of over 320 research scholars (M.Phil., and Ph.D.) across various Schools of study to enable them to carry out experimental work as well as timely submission of their thesis. A full semester was also completed online successfully for the ongoing batch of Master's students and the first semester classes were also initiated online.

In this latest phase announced on Tuesday, the Task Force considered the requirements of academic units that have laboratory/practice components that need to be completed before students graduate in June 2021 and have prioritised the return of about 148 students.

“This is the beginning of a gradual process that will continue through the next couple of months. For now, all theory classes, including for those who are being permitted to return to the campus for practical inputs, will continue online,”' UoH said in a release.