The University of Hyderabad (UoH) on Wednesday announced that they will hold nation-wide entrance examinations for admission to various post-graduate and research courses between September 24 and 26.
The Vice-Chancellor of UoH, Prof. Appa Rao Podile said the University is going ahead with this schedule after the Supreme Court gave its nod to holding of JEE and NEET.
Responding to the question on how these exams will be conducted, considering the Coronavirus spread and opposition of JEE and NEET students against the conduct of physical exams, the UoH authorities said that the exams will be conducted offline and with all COVID-19 related precautions in place.
"The exams will be conducted in 38 centres across the country. To control the crowd of applicants and ensure their safety, we will ensure that as many examination rooms are utilized at the centers to ensure social distancing", said the Vice-Chancellor.
Over 62,000 candidates seeking admission this year will appear for the entrance exam in 38 centers across the country. The University plans to complete the admission process and start classes for the new students latest by the first week of November.
Sharing details of the University’s strategy for the resumption of academic activities, the Vice-Chancellor mentioned that about 2000 post-graduate students in the ongoing batch will be starting classes online from today.
The University has geared up for this online semester by installing a learning management system (LMS) that can be used by faculty and students and by shoring up the ICT infrastructure at the departments and Schools. Given internet connectivity issues being faced by some students in remote locations, Prof. Appa Rao assured that online instruction will be primarily in the asynchronous mode, under the guiding principle of ‘leaving no student behind’.
The Chairman of the UoH Task Force, Prof. Vinod Pavarala outlined some of the student welfare measures taken by the University to ease the process of resumption for students, including the sanction of a digital access grant (DAG) for disadvantaged students, deferring payment of fee during semester registration, giving extension of time for M.Phil and Ph.D students to submit their theses, and allowing research scholars to register this semester without insisting on uploading of doctoral committee progress reports.
The Task Force has also recommended the phased return of about 500 research scholars in the Science schools who work in wet labs, conducting crucial experimental research.
