Jadavpur University will not hold its convocation this year because of Covid-19 and the degree certificates will be distributed on digital platforms, officials of the institute said.

The decision to do away with the convocation, usually held on December 24 at the open air theatre on the campus, was taken by the university’s executive council at a meeting held virtually onSunday.

“We will not be able to hold the convocation because of the pandemic. We will upload the digital version of the degree certificates on the National Academic Depository so that the students could download them on December 24. The university will issue a notification informing the graduating students about the mechanism,’’ vice-chancellor Suranjan Das said.

The depository is a digital database of academic awards provided by the education ministry.

“If a recipient wants a hardcopy of the certificate, the university will have it delivered to him or her through courier,” Das said.

A member of the council said it had been left to the VC to decide whether a token programme would be held on December 24 and the recipients asked to collect the certificates in a staggered way the same day.

“A committee comprising the vice-chancellor and the deans of engineering, science and humanities has been constituted to take a final decision on this issue,’’ said an official.

“Health experts are apprehending that the virus could become more virulent during winter. So, we cannot risk any assembly on the campus now,” he said.

JU has not charged the graduating students the convocation fee of Rs 500. About 4,000 students have graduated this year. The convocation fee is collected to distribute gowns to the recipients and prepare the laminated degree certificates.

An official of Calcutta University said they too, are, planning to avoid the traditional convocation because of the pandemic. “The pandemic is raging even in winter. So, it is unlikely the ceremony will be held in a physical mode. We will decide on the alternative mechanism, soon,” a CU official said.

Presidency University is likely to distribute digital degree certificates through the National Academic Depository next year, as it did this year, sources said. It had scrapped the convocation in February amid the buzz that it was reluctant to invite governor Jagdeep Dhankhar to the event. The governor had then faced students’ protests on campuses because of his views on the citizenship matrix.