Once Universities reopen, health regulations will have to be followed such as social distancing. How will it be possible with a class of around 60 students. What is the thinking of UGC on that?

For reopening of higher education institutions, UGC is developing guidelines which will be shared with the institutions soon. We will keep in mind the protocols of the Ministry of Health, inputs of home ministry and also we have to capture the diversity so we will come up with guidelines for reopening of Universities soon.

Health of students is the prime concern so we'll have to follow the social distancing and are thinking of blended learning such as multiple shifts for the students. For example few Students will take physical classes, few students will take online classes, few will do lab work and few will work on projects.

Also, in our guidelines we will capture the health related issues such as health checkups, use of Arogya Setu app.

In our suggested Academic calendar also we have suggested higher education institutions that for the older batch, session can start in August and for the new batch in September but now I think we will have to relook at this. As the cases are increasing, we are thinking of broader, flexible, suggestive guidelines again for reopening of the higher education institutions taking into account the various guidelines and protocols of the Government of India, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Home Affairs.

Prof. Dhirendra Pal Singh
Chairman, University Grants Commission, Former Vice Chancellor of three universities - Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi; Dr. Hari Singh Gour University, Sagar; and Devi Ahilya University, Indore