Jadavpur University will conduct regular classes through “distance digital mode” from September 7 for the BTech students so that students of the intermediate semester can be compensated for the classes they had missed out on in the previous semester because of the lockdown, said a university official.

Half the classes of the previous semester could not be held because the campus had to be shut down on March 16 as a precaution against Covid-19.

The compensatory classes will be held up to September 25.

“Classes for the new semester will start on September 28,” said an official who is also a member of the faculty council for engineering and technology.

Another official said that in the “distance digital mode” — already being applied for the compensatory classes for the students of science and arts — materials such as notes, soft copies of textbooks, and audio and video demonstrations would be provided to the students through email and WhatsApp.

But students of the engineering and technology faculty wondered how the students who don’t have a mobile phone or cannot afford a data pack would be able to attend classes. “Starting classes without addressing the connectivity concerns will be unethical,” said Aritra Mazumder, the chairperson of the students’ union for the engineering and technology faculty.

“We have left it to the teachers to decide how to reach out to the students overcoming the odds,” said an official.

“If nothing can be done, then additional classes should be held for these students when they will be handed the devices and the data pack,’’ vice-chancellor Suranjan Das had said earlier.