DU to reopen its campus from September 15, JNU allows PhD students to come back from September 6

Delhi University (DU) will be opening up their campus from September 15. Meanwhile, Jawaharlal Nehru University also opened its campus for research scholars on September 6. While DU will be continuing online classes and has only opened libraries and laboratories, JNU is looking to open its campus in a "phased manner".

Delhi University students will be required to receive at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine before entering the premises. Laboratory and practical work will be permitted for final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students from September 15. If a student wants to avail hostel facilities, they will have to be fully vaccinated. However, even partially vaccinated students may be permitted to stay in the hostel on a case to case basis.  It is noteworthy that physical entry of students is voluntary and attendance is not compulsory.

“Any plan of transition to offline mode must take into account the prevailing conditions and 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,” stated a notice from the DU registrar’s office. The notice added that students more than 50 per cent of the sitting capacity cannot be present at any point of time.

On the other hand, JNU Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar said that the administration will start its phased reopening with PhD research students as they need to submit their theses this year. Kumar added that a committee is looking into opening the campus in different phases.

In a virtual interaction with students on Monday, he said, “The COVID situation in the country is definitely improving. However, in certain regions, it is still a serious matter. We also have issues related to COVID variants. Considering the situation in the country and following guidelines we received from the government, the JNU administration has decided to open the university in a phased manner.” Kumar added, “There is a committee looking into it and it has decided that PhD students who need to complete their thesis work before December 31 will be permitted to enter the campus first. After PhD, terminal students in various programmes will be called, and then the entire university will be opened.”