JNU to continue online classes for current semester; admission likely to start by April-end: VC

NEW DELHI: JNU vice chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar on Monday said the varsity will continue the current semester in online mode and the admission process may start by the end of April. Kumar, along with other officials of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), addressed students through Facebook Live on the state of affairs in the campus in the wake of rising coronavirus cases.

He said the university will take a decision to allow offline classes in the next academic session after reviewing the pandemic situation. "The university has made every effort to make sure that the teaching-learning process goes on and we are glad to tell you that all our courses are now running through the digital platform.

The entire semester will go on only in the online mode. We will review the situation and see if it will be possible to conduct the next academic session in the physical mode,” the vice chancellor said. Responding to a question, Jayant Tripathi, director of admissions, said the department has already finalised the prospectus and seat requirements from different schools and centres.

The advertisement for admission may be released by the end of this month followed by entrance exams in July, he said. "The prospectus will also be made available by then. Most probably, the examination will be held in the first week of July, depending on the situation in the country. "We are planning to complete the admission process by September, less than a month late unlike the last year. With the help of the staff who have been working long hours, without taking holidays or weekly offs, we will manage to finish the admission process in time for a regular session in the next year," Tripathi noted.

Speaking about hostel allotment to new students, rector Rana Pratap Singh said since the number of vacate rooms is less, it is difficult to make a priority list.

However, the dean of schools is working on it and the students will be notified soon, he said. "There are two sets of students, one who have come back and are staying because they need access to labs, their stay is extended until December 2021. And then there are students who left their rooms in the beginning of the pandemic outbreak and they have locked these rooms. "Those who completed their degrees and vacated their rooms, those numbers are very few. It is very difficult to make a priority list, which requires some level of understanding of who can be allotted rooms since the number is very limited. Dean of schools is working on this," Singh said.

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