Mumbai colleges to reopen soon; Tata Institute of social sciences yet to take decision

The institute in its circular on March 17, 2020, asked the students to vacate the hostels, since then the campus has been kept closed and classes are held online. 

Even as colleges in Mumbai are prepping up to reopen their campuses for offline classes for students after almost 11 months of lockdown, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) is still not taken any decision on it.

“We are studying all guidelines and assessing the requirements for physical classes. For TISS, opening the campus would mean opening hostels to students,” said PK Shajahan, dean, academics at TISS.

Owing to the coronavirus outbreak, the institute had been kept closed since mid-March last year. The institute in its circular on March 17, 2020, asked the students to vacate the hostels, since then the campus has been kept closed and classes are held online. 

Shajahan said the institute is currently analysing the ground situation for implementing the guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission for reopening of campuses. “We will follow all guidelines and take a decision after making an assessment of the ground situation,” he added.

Meanwhile, the demand for reopening the campus and granting access to the library is growing among students. Progressive Students’ Forum, a student body at TISS, has written to the administration seeking clarity on its plan to reopen.

“It is now well established that the shift to digital education has disproportionately affected students from socio-economically marginalised communities. As the mode of education has changed to online completely, students are struggling with various issues, ranging from dissatisfaction with the quality of classes to network issues that affect accessibility to classes. Many research students are unable to continue their work without access to library facilities. We have demanded the administration to take these issues into serious consideration and reopen the campus in a phased manner as per the guidelines of the Maharashtra state government,” said PSF in a statement.

The demands come close on the heels of last week’s announcement by Maharashtra higher and technical education minister Uday Samant that colleges can reopen from February 15. He said that classes were to be held on a rotational basis with 50 per cent attendance. 

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