After return of 1,300 students, 2,000 more allowed to enter University of Hyderabad campus

The University of Hyderabad has allowed the return of an additional 2,000 students for in-person academic activities on the campus.

1,300 students were allowed earlier, after the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions were eased last year.

One of the top universities in the country, UoH has a total strength of over 5,700 students and 425 faculty.

“The latest decision allows the presence of about 60 per cent of the total students on the campus,” a UoH official told DH.

Returning students must produce a Covid-19 negative report from RT-PCR test, sign an undertaking, and spend a minimum of three days in isolation at a campus facility.

Those students returning from Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat, that are reporting a surge in cases, are required to spend seven days in isolation.

All the departments are advised to continue instruction in a blended mode (of offline and online).

Vice-Chancellor Podile Appa Rao has approved the return of all terminal semester post-graduate students completing their programmes and graduating in June, based on the recommendations of a UoH task force preparing the road-map for resumption of academic activities amidst the global pandemic.

All the Ph.D. students, except those who joined in 2020-21, can come back to resume their research work on campus. For now, all Master’s students who joined the University in 2020 will continue to have online classes.

“The return will be entirely voluntary and the university will continue teaching-learning activities online for those who wish to remain at their homes,” the university said in a statement on Thursday.

UoH had commenced online teaching in August and provided remote access to digital resources to all the students and faculty.

The permission now, the official said, is in addition to the 1,300 students already allowed, including research scholars and final semester students in the science and practical disciplines such as performing arts and fine arts, to return and stay in the hostels.

The university had earlier facilitated senior research scholars to complete their thesis submissions, and also reopened the main library.