5 NOVEMBER 2020
GUIDELINES ISSUED ON REOPENING OF COLLEGES
University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued guidelines on reopening of Colleges and Universities.
Libraries, Research Laboratories and administrative offices would be opened first followed by research students, science and technology postgraduates. Further final year undergraduates may also be allowed to join for academic and placement purposes. For all others online and distance learning would continue to be the preferred method in the colleges and universities.
However they can visit the institution in small groups for consultation with faculty after seeking permission to avoid crowding.
Fifty per cent of the students would be allowed on the campus at a time and all should follow Covid-19 protocols like wearing masks and hand sanitising practices.
The guidelines discourage the opening of hostels but they would be permitted so long as there is no sharing of rooms and 14 days quarantines are strictly followed in order to contain the spread of covid-19. Thermal scanning of all resident students should be ensured.
Non-resident students should be allowed on campuses only after thermal scanning, sanitization of their hands and wearing masks and gloves. Symptomatic persons should not be permitted to enter the campus and advised to contact the nearest hospital for clinical assessment. Isolation facilities should be in place either on campus or as a prior arrangement with nearby hospitals or as advised by local authorities for symptomatic and covid positive tested cases.
Six day schedules may be followed so that classes can be conducted in phases following social distancing.
Only institutions outside the containment zones are allowed to reopen and students and staff living in these zones would not be allowed to attend the classes.
The faculty, staff and students should be encouraged to download ‘Aarogya Setu App’.
The Home Ministry had given permissions to the state governments to reopen schools and colleges from October 15 considering the local situations. The centrally funded institutions will reopen as per the decisions of the head of the institutions and all other institutions, whether aided, private, state funded shall follow the decisions of the state government.
