Varsity to reopen after winter break on Feb 3 to make up for lost time
SHILLONG, Dec 4: The Academic Council of the North-Eastern Hill University on Wednesday decided to defer all examinations till the first week of March next year.
Around 4,000 students who are pursuing their UG, PG and professional courses under NEHU will be affected due to the postponement of the examinations which are normally held in December.
Talking to The Shillong Times, NEHU Vice Chancellor in charge Nirmalendu Saha said the examinations will conclude by mid-March. He said the classes for the next semester will resume immediately after the end of the examinations.
Prof Saha said normal classes will continue till December 17 before the winter break.
Informing that the university normally reopens on February 18 after the winter vacation, he said the Academic Council decided to reopen the university on February 3 to make up for the losses since classes could not be held for over a month due to the agitations.
Normal classes will continue till February 28 before the university conducts the semester examinations.
“I am happy that students listened to my request to allow resumption of normal classes. I am hopeful things will normalise shortly,” he said.
Nod to Shillong Medical College, nursing colleges
The NEHU Academic Council (AC) on Wednesday granted permission to the state government to open the Shillong Medical College and two nursing colleges.
“The permission of the university for opening of the medical college and two nursing colleges was accorded by the AC,” Prof Saha said.
He said that they will send a letter to the state government on Thursday to formally communicate the permission granted by the AC.
The permission is necessary since the Shillong Medical College and the two nursing colleges will be affiliated to NEHU.
He said that the state government will need to upload the permission granted by the university on the portal of the National Medical Council (NMC) to open the medical college.
“It is a matter of urgency since the portal to upload the permission remains open only for 50 days,” Prof Saha said.
Stating that the government plans to start with 50 MBBS seats in 2025, he said that the university is committed to support the government to start the MBBS course from next year.
Stating that there is no issue as far as the infrastructure is concerned, he said he was informed that the government has already reserved Rs 50 crore for upgrade of the infrastructure.
“We were also informed that the process of recruitment of the faculty member has already started,” the NEHU VC in charge said.
Affiliation of PG courses of NEIAH
Prof Saha further informed that the NEHU AC has approved the affiliation of the PG courses for both Ayurveda and Homeopathy at the North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda & Homoeopathy (NEIAH).
Informing that the affiliation was pending since July 2023, he said they have approved the affiliation from the date it was due.
It may be mentioned that eight PG (Homeopathy) students of NEIAH had held an indefinite hunger strike due to the institute’s delay in getting the affiliation of the PG courses from NEHU.
The agitated students had called off their hunger strike following assurances from the AYUSH Ministry.