IIT Kharagpur has decided to recall all 1,400-odd students pursuing the two-year MTech and MSc programmes, provided they are fully vaccinated, so they can go to the labs and attend practical classes that cannot be covered through online lectures.
The students who took admission in July last year had written to IIT director V.K. Tewari over the past several months asking to be allowed to return to the campus.
Classes are being held over digital platforms since March 2020 as a precaution against Covid.
On Monday, the director allowed the recall from October with the rider that the returnees need to be fully vaccinated.
The dean of students’ affairs, Dhrubajyoti Sen, said all final-year students of the MSc and MTech courses were being called back to the campus. As for the BTech students, only those who were facing resource constraints while attending online classes at home are being called back.
“But those with both doses of vaccine would be allowed entry. If they (MSc and MTech students) are not recalled now, they will graduate without visiting the campus,” Sen told The Telegraph.
An official said the absence of any exposure to the laboratories and workshops have raised concerns among students about their future. Their programmes may not be as research intensive as that of research scholars but lab work constitutes a large part of the courses.
“Amid the pandemic, the teachers are trying to make the assignments and projects less lab-intensive. But labs cannot be done away with. If these lessons are not imparted, they will graduate without the required skill and this is bound to raise questions on their career prospects,” said the official.
Those who opt to return to campus will be split into small groups to avoid too many students in the labs at a time.
Around 900 research scholars are already on the campus.
“Now, MTech and MSc students will come to the campus. So, avoiding any assembly as much as possible while allowing access to the laboratories will be the main objective,” said an official.
The institute is also raising the cap on the number of research scholars on the campus, an official said.
“Another 400 research scholars will be recalled in phases from October. Since Covid cases have not been reported on the campus over the past three weeks and the teachers took the initiative to hold vaccination camps for the scholars who did not take the second dose, the cap is being raised,” the official said.
The demand that students pursuing technical and science-based courses be allow-ed back on campus is steadily rising in institutes across Bengal.
A concern over the absence of hands-on training, which is raising questions about the employability of students, prompted the Bengal government to reopen polytechnic colleges and industrial training institutes from August 30.
Teachers of Jadavpur University on Monday wrote to education minister Bratya Basu demanding that research scholars and final-year BSc, MSc, BTech and MTech students who are vaccinated be allowed on campus immediately.
IIEST, Shibpur, is also working on a recall plan from November.
