IIM Calcutta has allowed students from small towns and tier-III cities facing connectivity issues to return to the campus and use the Internet facility available in hostels to attend online classes.

As part of this, 25 per cent from the first-year and second-year MBA programme put together has been allowed entry.

The first lot of students started arriving from Sunday, said an official of the institute.

Even as classes started from June, many of those from the two-year MBA programme were encountering hassles in attending classes over online platforms because of the digital divide.

“Twenty five per cent of the 960 students from the first-year and second-year batch so far have been allowed to come. These students are from the small towns and muffasil areas who are encountering connectivity issues, posing hindrances in attending online classes. Upon arrival they will be quarantined for 10 days in an isolation facility, before allowing entry to the hostels,” said Manish Thakur, dean (new initiatives and external relations) and a member of the Covid-19 taskforce.

Students have complained about unstable connectivity and steep charges on account of datapacks.

The second lot of students from the pool of 25 per cent will start arriving from July 21.

In mid April, the Joka institute had asked students of its two-year MBA programme and one-year MBA executive programme to vacate hostels because of the developing Covid-19 situation on the campus. As many as 70 students had tested positive between late March and mid April.

An official of the institute said the hostels in between have been sanitised.

The issue regarding the connectivity woes coming in the way of attending the online classes was flagged in June last year by the then office bearer of the institute’s student council.

Hunar Gandhi, the student council president, had on June 13 in a letter to then director Anju Seth written: “Would it be possible to allow some students, who may be facing connectivity issues or other constraints at home, to return to campus and utilise campus infrastructure even when classes are online? Can this process begin from now onwards as there is still a month before the classes begin? Students are apprehensive about the quality of learning through the online mode.”

Decision on arrival of the remaining batch of students and those from the one-year MBA executive programme would be taken later. “Since several cases were reported during the stay of students at the hostel in April, we are treading cautiously on recalling the students,” said an official.

He said they were planning to set up hybrid classes with contributions from the batch of “92’ so that students could attend online classes much more effectively.

In hybrid classes, lectures are live-streamed for some students, while others attend them in person.The concept has gained popularity in campuses across the globe amid the pandemic because this helps in maintaining physical distance.

The institute's students’ council in a letter on IT infrastructure woes addressed to the former director Anju Seth on February 16 had stated: “We don’t have the required infrastructure in our classrooms to conduct hybrid classes.”

The students’ senate of IIT Kharagpur has demanded that the students who are facing resource constraints and not being able to attend online classes be called back to the campus at the earliest.