By Sharon Thambala
Bengaluru, Jul 23 (IANS): As many as 95 students from India's premier Business school, Indian Institute of Management - Bangalore (IIM-B), have completed a fortnight's quarantine inside the campus amid the pandemic, said the institute's director.
Among the 95, 60 are from the new 2020 - 21 batch of the Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management (EPGP) and 35 belong to the second year of the flagship fulltime Post Graduate Programme (PGP) or MBA.
The students entered the campus at the end of June to complete their isolation at the Management Development Centre (MDC) recently, a 120-room hotel like facility within the campus.
According to the state-run institute's Director Rishikesha T. Krishnan, the students have been allowed inside the campus during the pandemic because some could not connect to the online classes at their homes because of poor internet connectivity while some others had left jobs and come to Bengaluru to join the 1-year EPGP course.
"At the moment we are not allowing any students come in except a few students who had problems with internet access in their homes, second year MBA students. We have allowed them to stay in the hostel and attend courses online," told Krishnan to IANS.
He said many EPGP students did not have accommodation in the cities they were staying as they quit jobs and have moved to Bengaluru so that they could also attend physical classes as and when they begin.
"What we said is okay you come to Bengaluru, go through the quarantine and since your accommodation is outside you go and stay outside in you apartment, that is the process which is going on,a said Krishnan.
He said all the 95 students have completed the mandatory state government ordered two-week quarantine inside the campus.
Incidentally, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials had also visited the MDC quarantine facility when the students were isolated and approved it.
Meanwhile, none of the 35 PGP students will be allowed to venture outside the campus while the EPGP students will be released from the campus to occupy their institute-arranged apartment accommodation on the Bannerghatta Road nearby.
Many of the remaining nearly 400 PGP students are interested in returning to the campus but will not be allowed now.
"Students would obviously want to come to the campus but it is not feasible at this point of time. In any case right now, all classes are online and there is no physical class," pointed out Krishnan.
The director has also clarified that there is no proposal at the moment to allow the remaining students to arrive into the campus in batches.
"Right now no such proposal is there, only emergency thing (arrangement) was done to students in second year who were not having good internet access because their classes have started and they needed to attend their classes online," he observed.
Similarly, the EPGP students were allowed so that they could attend their online classes but will go out and stay in their apartments.
A good number of PGP students and the Student Academic Council (SAC Committee) are also unhappy with the fallout of the pandemic as they are unable to return to the institute to participate in the multiple team activities which are a major part of their curriculum.
During normal times, IIM-B's campus placement season starts around late September but Covid has forced that schedule to go haywire, adding to the uncertainties final year students are already battling now.
In the meantime, the management school will continue to conduct online classes.
"All classes will continue online till such time as it is safe and confirmed by the government that regular classes can resume," confirmed Krishnan.
Including a five-year fulltime Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programme, IIM-B offers three MBA courses, a one-year Master of Management Studies in public policy and also a course in business analytics.