Reopening of Universities under HEC Guidelines and Timelines

Federal government has already issued the orders for the reopening of the public and private universities all over the country. The government issues the orders to Higher Education Commission to devise the standing operating procedures for all universities to follow them at the time of opening the universities. HEC has issued the timelines and guidelines to all universities and the universities will be reopened from 15 July. The HEC will ensure the Reopening of Universities under HEC Guidelines and Timelines.

The universities will be reopened in multiple phases and in the first phase, the faculty staff and the students, who are facing connectivity issues, will attend the university and in the second phase, the final year and graduate students, with house job or practical requirement will be allowed to come to the campuses of the universities. During the third phase, the students will be allowed to attend their campus.

HEC Schedule and Timeline

• The faculty, essential staff and students having connectivity issues, will attend university from 15 July 2020.
• Final year and graduate students and the students with house job will attend their campus from 3 August 2020.
• Students with lab requirements like medicine, science and engineering will be allowed to attend their campuses from 17 August 2020.
• New students will attend campus from 14 September for orientation session
• All new and old students will be allowed to attend the campus from 15 September 2020.

All universities open together

The vice chancellors and syndicates make their decision to open their campuses. They need to check the behavior of epidemic and do not make university quarantine itself. The spreading of pandemic in surrounding area may spread to community of university through vendors, local staff, transport system and normal interactions. They also need to check how many students can be accommodated. They ensure the provision of medical services and also the essential supplies, PPEs, testing kits and sanitization system and the surveillance cameras and also adopt the transparent policy and assignment of responsibility.

Checklist of Safety SOPs

The universities will ensure that all staff and students will wear masks in public place and they maintain hygiene practice and observe the physical and social distancing and follow protocols for public places. They will review the updates on virus and safety policies regularly with the use of biometric identifiers. They maintain the daily contact diary and in case of symptoms, they follow the prescribed procedures.