University of Hyderabad To Resume Classes Online From August 20

HYDERABAD: University of Hyderabad (UoH) has announced that it has decided to resume classes in online mode for about 2,000 ongoing post-graduate students in various programmes from August 20.

The university here had suspended classes for all batches on March 15 due to the COVID-19 induced lockdown and has since completed the evaluation process of final semester students, allowing them to graduate.

Based on projections about the continuing COVID-19 epidemic, a task force headed by senior professor Vinod Pavaralarecommended that the university start online teaching, a press release by the varsity read. The recommendations were discussed and approved at a meeting of Heads of Department and Deans of Schools convened by the Vice-Chancellor.

Considering the difficulties that some students are likely to face with costs of connectivity, the university has also accepted the recommendation to re-purpose the existing boarding allowance scholarship of Rs 1,000 for a month into a digital access grant to students from deprived backgrounds, the release said.

The Vice-Chancellor has also announced the university's plan to shore upinformation communication technology infrastructure at the department-level or at the level of individual faculty members to enable them to effectively deliver online teaching.

Earlier, the Task Force held consultations with various stakeholders, including students and faculty members, and received a number of suggestions by email on resumption of academic activities.