Indian Institute of Management Calcutta has “indefinitely” postponed the summer school programme because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The classes for the Teaching Summer School/Pre-Summer School/Research Summer School were to start from the end of April.

An announcement posted on the institute’s website read: “Dear all, in view of the restrictions imposed by the Government of India and several States to control the spread of COVID-19 including the complete or partial lockdown in major cities across the country, the safety and security of the citizens of the country is of utmost importance at this period of crisis.... No one knows how long will the devastating impact of the virus last.”

The announcement added: “Keeping in mind the safe health of the participants, we have decided to postpone the Teaching Summer School/ Pre-Summer School/Research Summer School indefinitely.... Those who have already paid the registration fee will get full refund. We’ll process the refund in April 2020.”

The financial research and trading laboratory of the business school and Indian Finance Association organise the summer school in areas like finance and accounting.

Repeated calls to the director of the institute, Anju Seth, went unanswered.