Universities can reopen after 27 September if students are inoculated

University admission test
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The process to reopen universities of the country is underway after schools and colleges resumed classes on 12 September after 18 months of closure due to Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the latest decision, the university students who are yet to register for Covid vaccine have to complete their registrations within 27 September. Those who do not have national identity cards will be registered using their birth certificates. The students will have to provide University Grants Commission (UGC) their birth certificate numbers within the quickest possible time. The UGC will hand over those numbers to the health department who will take the necessary steps to vaccinate those students.

The universities which can complete the process of registration for all the students within 27 September will be able to reopen their institutions upon the decision of their respective academic councils and syndicates. The universities can take initiative to vaccinate the students within the shortest possible time. Colleges can reopen following the same process.

These decisions were taken at a meeting of education minister Dipu Moni with UGC and vice chancellors of universities, said two officials took part at the meeting held virtually on Tuesday.

Earlier a meeting on 26 August decided that the universities can reopen after 15 October provided they fulfil some conditions. The meeting also decided that universities will complete the inoculation of their students within 15 September and wait for 15 more days. But the universities are yet to make necessary preparations and vaccination of the students are yet to be completed. Even most of the universities failed to provide UGC and education ministry with the lists of the students who are already vaccinated. As of yesterday, a total of 15-16 universities have provided the list.

The new decision has come against this backdrop. The issue of reopening of universities has come to the fore after schools-colleges reopened on Sunday and medical colleges the following day.

UGC’s former chairman Nazrul Islam told Prothom Alo on Monday that preparations to reopen universities should be completed soon.

Students should be vaccinated on priority basis and residential halls of the universities should be made safe for the students, he added.