IIEST has decided to start in-person classes and exams from January after students expressed reservations about returning to the campus on November 16.
The Bengal government has allowed reopening of campuses for in-person classes from November 16.
An IIEST official said students in the final semester would be allowed to come to the Shibpur campus from November 16 so they could use the Net facility on the campus to attend classes and placement interviews over digital platforms.
The IIEST students’ senate had in late August written to the authorities that 142 final-year BTech and MTech students be called back to the campus to attend placement interviews or classes.
Connectivity problems and frequent power outages at home, the senate had written, were coming in the way of attending interviews and classes.
Debabrata Mazumder, the dean of students at IIEST, said: “We have considered the appeal of the students. The institute is planning to start offline classes from the next semester, which will start in January. However, final-year BTech (fourth-year) students can come to the campus from November 16 to attend online classes, placement interviews and practicals.”
Students of the second, third and fourth years will be called back to the campus from January.
A decision about first-year students will be taken later, said an IIEST official.
The senate, which represents all students on the campus, had last week pointed out in a letter to the director, Parthasarathi Chakrabarti, that students were wary of returning to the campus now as classes for the odd semester (July to December), held on online platforms, were almost over and they were due to write the exams shortly.
Harshvardhan Singh, general secretary of the students’ senate, said of the 142 students whose recall they sought, 88 were in BTech final year and 54 were pursuing MTech. They will be benefited because they are being allowed to come to the campus from November 16, he said.
“Placement prospects of those in BTech final-year are getting severely hampered because of unstable Net connectivity at home. Frequent power cuts were also posing challenges. Recalling them will help,” Singh told this newspaper.
The institute is going to recall the final-year students of the MTech programme soon, an official said.
“The students argued that they would find it difficult to adjust to the sudden change in the learning mode for the rest of the semester if they are called for on-campus classes now. The institute, too, needs time to resolve the issue of hostel accommodation,” the official said.