Colleges and universities in West Bengal to not reopen now, exams to be held online

Despite the reopening of schools from February 12, colleges and universities in West Bengal would not reopen immediately. This was conveyed by State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee on Wednesday after he chaired a meeting of the state Higher Education Council, which was attended by vice-chancellors of state universities.

In the meeting, the vice-chancellors urged the state government to allow the universities and colleges to conduct online classes and hold odd-semester exams online till



March.

“’Since a month is left to hold exams for odd-semesters (like 1, 3, 5, 7), the vice-chancellors proposed to continue with the online classes. The government has agreed to their proposal. The universities also said that they cannot reopen hostels immediately due to the pandemic situation,” Chatterjee said, adding students and faculty members have gradually got used to online mode.

It was also decided that laboratories will be kept open for use by PhD researchers on a case-by-case basis.