DU will reopen in phased manner, safety of students top priority: VC

NEW DELHI: Delhi University Acting Vice-Chancellor P C Joshi on Wednesday said the varsity will be opened in a phased manner as safety of students is a primary concern.

Following a marked improvement in the COVID-19 situation here, the Delhi government had last Friday announced that schools for classes 9 to 12, colleges and coaching institutions will reopen from September 1. According to a university official, a meeting of senior officials was held on Wednesday and the varsity might open from next week. The university will hold a meeting with principals, deans and heads of departments on Thursday to discuss the situation and reopening of the varsity.

"Our students are located all over India and we do not want to create a panic situation for them. We will reopen in a phased and careful manner so that no student is put in danger or inconvenienced. We will be reopening after discussions and in a systematic manner,” Joshi told PTI. “We will reopen for some students, then see the situation… when we gain more confidence, we will open up for more students," he added.

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Joshi stressed the safety of students is their priority. He said PhD and MPhil students were coming to campus and the research was happening in a controlled manner but now it will be eased looking at the situation slowly and steadily. "We won't open the floodgates," he stressed.

In the first week of August, the DU had issued an official notification announcing that it would hold physical classes for science stream students in view of a decline in coronavirus cases, following which a section of teachers had expressed displeasure over the university's decision to call students to campus. The university had later deferred its decision, with DU registrar Vikas Gupta saying that the Delhi Disaster Management Authority had not issued any guidelines on reopening of campuses.

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"We had to retract the earlier notification since the DDMA had not issued any guidelines… (now) DDMA guidelines have come and we will follow them. We will continue with online classes as well," Joshi said.

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