First-year students get taste of campus at IIT Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: IIT Bhubaneswar started admitting its 1st year B.Tech and Dual Degree students for the academic session 2021-22 asking them to physically report to the campus on November 21 and it  continued till November 24.

A total of 472 students amongst which 90 (20%) are women and 139 (29%) are under 18, were offered admission on November 20, 2021, after the 6th and last round of counselling by JOSAA. The IIT counselling was started on October 27.

Till the end of November 22, 2021, 226 students (182 boys and 44 girls) reported at the campus already. The institute gave the option of staying at home and take the education online for those under 18. Only 20 (4%) of them opted to stay back at home. About 7 and 15 students requested for extension of time due to health and other reasons like natural calamity etc. The rest are expected to arrive at the campus by November 24. Of those reported at the campus 50%, 27% and 23% got fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated and not yet vaccinated, respectively.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof Raja Kumar, Director said, “It is heartening to note that majority of those under 18 who are yet to be vaccinated have also chosen to join the campus hostels for education with physical presence. The IIT system is residential in nature and importance is given to peer learning too which is an essential component of creating tomorrow’s leaders, today. At IIT Bhubaneswar we have been implementing Covid protocols in a spirited way, vaccinated all in the first opportunity, and have been protecting the campus in extremely high standards while permitting the students to stay on the campus. Our campus is Covid free at the moment and we could maintain it that way for majority of the months during the pandemic. We will be able to take a good care of those under 18 and vaccinate them too as and when they acquire eligibility as per the government guidelines. At the moment, all except for the 3rd year BTech students are in the campus and a majority of them have classes running with their physical presence”.

To join the campus RT-PCR negative report is mandatory with the test taken within the last 72 hours before reporting to the campus. The students will have to undergo 10 days of quarantine in the newly-built Rushikulya Hall of Residence, which was inaugurated by Dharmendra Pradhan, the Education Minister on August 20, 2021 and the Subarnarekha Hall of Residence. The institute is providing them with single room accommodation.

“Classes for the freshers will commence from 26th of this month, first by online mode for a few weeks followed by hybrid mode thereafter and the academics for them for this year will be completed timely by June 2022” said Dr P R Sahu, Dean Academic Affairs.

Prof P V Satyam, Dean (student affairs) and Chairman, Covid Prevention Task Force said, “We have able teams headed by Dr Santanu Pal, Warden, Dr R K Singh, Professor-in-charge, Counselling and Dr Srinivas Karanki, President Gymkhana, and Dr M A Khan, Medical Officer heading teams who are taking care of the freshers apart from the others and we are confident that the campus would play a leading role in running our academics in uncompromised standards while protecting the students from Covid-19 as per the ambitious aspirations of the Director and all of us.

The institute is going to bring its 3rd year BTech students in December making it 100% on campus.