Apeejay Stya University welcomes students back to the campus

A lot has changed since the world first went into lockdown due to the sudden onset of Covid-19 in March 2020. For Apeejay Stya University students, one of the biggest changes was the shift to the online mode of education.

Although the transition to online classes was seamless, thanks to the state-of-the-art technological infrastructure of the university, many of them were still missing the in-person interaction and camaraderie with their classmates.

As soon as the students received the news of the university reopening for face-to-face classes, they were excited. Abhishek Shukla, a first-year BBA student with the School of Management Sciences, who has travelled from Satna in Madhya Pradesh, says he was keen to return to the campus and is delighted to attend face-to-face classes. He said, “I really missed the classroom environment. Now I can have direct interaction with the professors in case I have doubts on any subjects. Also, I like to go to the library and work on my assignments.”

Even though Apeejay is conducting classes via the hybrid model, the students are happy to be in the classroom and engaging with the professor and their friends, after a long interval.

Says Shweta Kumari, a second year student of B.Pharma with the School of Pharmaceuticals, “We have both the options to attend classes: online as well as offline. But I was waiting to come back from Patna. In pharmaceutical studies, practicals are a really important part of the programme and those can be done only in labs. At home, some of the apparatus isn’t available. I wanted to attend my practicals in laboratories.”

Besides, she loves the ambience of the hostel, she adds, “At home, the environment is different when compared to classrooms. There were distractions and I was not able to study peacefully. Here, since I reside in the hostel, I have a proper timetable that I follow. I am happy to be back.”

Kirti Anand, a third year student of BJMC with the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, says journalists need to be hands-on and out in the field.  “Online classes were not easy because we were missing out on our on-field experience. Being a journalism student, we learn more when we are moving around the campus with our cameras and speaking to people.”

The sprawling campus with state-of-the-art infrastructure is situated on the Sohna-Palwal Road in Haryana’s Gurugram district.  The university is ensuring that all students, faculty and staff are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 before coming back to the campus. Says Professor and Deputy Registrar (Academics), Dr Varuna Tyagi,  “Glad to see students finally coming back to the campus after such a long time. They are very happy to meet their friends and professors. We are making sure that all of them are fully vaccinated. We are expecting more students to be back by early next year.”