Page 7 - Spectrum Aug 2020 - AglaSem Magazine

masks and sanitizers that are a must students can approach the trained sectors which are highly affected
nowadays. We have distributed the and professional counsellors anytime due to pandemic. However, these
masks to people. if they are facing any psychological webinars aim to inform students that
issues. not everything is lost. The sectors will
So these are all we have done to cope eventually bounce back and getting
with COVID-19 and we are preparing Then we decided on how to support tensed or worried is not a solution.
for the next academic session. our faculties and staff. For that, we
started the faculty emergency sup- How different will be the post COVID-
When the lockdown was first an- port services. 19 and pre COVID-19 era, especially
nounced in March what was the first in the education sector?
instinct of the University? How did Thirdly, we started taking weekly
you move around it, what was the reports on the well being of the In pre-COVID era we always valued
first step? students. We try to extend help in face to face education. All emphasis
case of need and provide all sorts of was on the brick and mortar factors,
As I said earlier, the first step was online resources to our students like having big campus buildings and
the safety and the well being of the e-books, e-library, etc to help them as all. Value of distance education and
students, and second was to ensure much as possible. All resources have online education wasn’t known to all.
that the learning doesn’t stop for been made accessible from anywhere But now the people have started to
them. We directed the students to go and anytime. realise the power of technology.
back to their homes, hostelers were
also asked to move back, however, Very impressive. Everyone is focus- So here are the following things that
some international students could ing on online teaching right now can happen:
not go back. They were with us on but education, as a whole, is a lot Mobility: Now fewer students will
the campus till May. The last inter- more than just classes. How is Amity opt for international education. I am
national students to stay back with compensating that during this pan- not saying that it will finish but will
us was from Afghanistan. We kept demic? definitely reduce. Even travelling to
the hostel cafeteria open and asked We did a lot of planning at the far off states will be restricted.
the staff to take care of the students start, due to which we are able to
staying there. Facilities provided to hold awareness campaigns for the Use of technology will increase: UGC
such students comprises paramedics, students, faculties, community and and MHRD are promoting online edu-
security etc. cation. Earlier not all Universities had
others. Since the spread of the virus approval to provide online degrees.
One of the challenges that we have many discontinued the newspaper Amity was the first University of India
been facing is the examination of subscription, we stayed connected to receive it but given the situation,
the students. We are conducting the viaTwitter, Instagram, Facebook, UGC has approved all the Universi-
online examinations, almost 50% of Linkedin etc. Also, we encouraged the ties, which meet the set conditions.
the exams are already over. Keeping faculties and students to download
the current situation in mind, semes- the Aarogya Setu app to know the Fee might be reduced: With changing
ter as well as entrance exams for COVID-19 status around them and times certain programmes may lose
admissions are being held online. stay safe. their popularity and hence their fee
might be reduced.
This is what happened when the
lockdown started. However, as we
have seen since March a lot has
changed. So what is the approach
of Amity now about the lockdown, Online learning will be the way of life in
COVID-19 and everything?
the times to come.
We all are working from home and
are well prepared from the begin-
ning. Amity has its branches across Another concern was how to connect Online learning will be the way of life
the globe and we need to maintain with the industry as Amity always in the times to come.
uniformity in all our campuses. Thus, believes in Industry connect. We
most of the things were already had conducted nearly 1900 online No one could have imagined the
online. That was not a big challenge webinars for our students until now. current situation back in January.
for us. Every day, around 25 to 30 webinars How is Amity preparing for future
crisis situations? Is there any crisis
But the biggest challenge was that if are conducted and as we speak, few management programme that the
the students were not able to meet are going on right now as well. University is planning?
us face to face how can we keep their The Industry connect webinars have
motivation high throughout? So we many roles to play. Students get to We already have a disaster manage-
made the Amity counselling center. It know and learn about different sec- ment programme. But COVID-19 is
is called as Amity Centre for Guid- tors like insurance, banking, manufac- a very different kind of disaster, it is
ance and Counselling (ACGC) and is turing, telecom, tourism hospitality, like a natural disaster. Now the team
very active. It is a 24X7 service, where aviation, etc. sectors. These are the is reviewing the situation and we will
try to include the pandemic under

SPECTRUM AUG 2020 7