Colleges and universities plan to call only final-year students to the campus from February 3 to avoid large gatherings.
Second-year students will be called over a period of time and classes will continue in a blended mode (combination of online and offline classes) for some time, said heads of institutions.
First-year students will be called at a later stage as many of them are below 18 and yet to be vaccinated against Covid.
Hours after chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced that schools, colleges and universities would be reopened from February 3, Father Dominic Savio, principal of St Xavier’s College, said they would meet on Tuesday afternoon to finalise the reopening plan.
“We have plans to call the outgoing students at the undergraduate level (third-year and sixth semester) and postgraduate students (second-year and fourth semester) once campuses reopen. Then we have to decide about students from other years. Many of our students are from outside Bengal. So they have to be given time to come and provide accommodation in the hostels,” said Father Dominic Savio.
The college, he said, is planning for a staggered reopening.
An official of the college said they had to find out how many of the first-year students were fully vaccinated.
The second and third-year students, the principal said, are likely to attend classes on the campus on alternate days to avoid crowding.
Madhumanjari Mandal, principal of Scottish Church College, said they would meet on Tuesday to decide on the reopening modalities.
“It is unlikely that students from all years will be recalled at one go. The issue of providing accommodation to outstation students has to be addressed. Blended learning will continue for now,” said a college official.
Swami Ekachittananda, principal of Ramakrishna Mission Residential College (Autonomous), Narendrapur, said they would start recalling students in phases. “We plan to call students of the outgoing batch first. We want to call first-year students as well… but we have to find out their vaccination status,” he said.
An official of IIT Kharagpur said they would prioritise the recall of research scholars.