IIT Kharagpur has decided to pause its recall of research scholars because the institute is also calling back final-year MSc, MTech and BTech students and is worried there won’t be enough quarantine facilities.
Over the next two months, the institute will recall 1,200-odd undergraduate and postgraduate students in batches. They will be quarantined before being allowed in hostels.
Dhrubajyoti Sen, dean of students, said the remaining research scholars from the 2019 registration batch would be recalled once the institute finished calling back second-year MSc and MTech students and fourth-year BTech students.
“As more students are allotted rooms, the capacity of quarantine facilities will reduce. If all are recalled simultaneously, it won’t be possible for us to provide isolation facilities to them. So, the research scholars are likely to be recalled from December,” he said.
That final-year postgraduate students might graduate without even seeing the campus has prompted the recall. Unstable connectivity at home, which is coming in the way of attending placement interviews, has triggered the recall of final-year BTech students.
An official of the institute said the students returning to the campus would have to quarantine for two weeks.
The institute has over 3,500 research scholars.
A research scholar awaiting recall said the decision to put the process on hold would cost them. “Already, our recall has been pushed back…. Now, they are again going to halt the process for some time. We can’t afford to stay away from labs,” he said.
An institute official said they had to act according to the facilities available.
“Some research scholars (who had been recalled earlier) have gone home for Puja. When they start returning from November 1, they have to quarantine themselves. We have to use our resources judiciously. Festivals are around the corner and we have to be cautious with the recall process,” he said.
The IIT Kharagpur teachers’ association had in early August written to Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan accusing the authorities of indifference towards the need of research scholars.
The letter had stated “some of the IITs have brought their research scholars to almost full strength by upgrading the medical facilities on the campus” .
