Look what COVID has done to the research students of Chennai!!
Posted on: 14/Feb/2022 9:20:47 AM
From March 2020 onwards, the Coronavirus infection pandemic has been creating several issues for the people across the world. In India too, this pandemic has been severe and many have been affected. The Omicron variant of Coronavirus that had spread at rapid speeds earlier has also been brought under control now is well known. In this scenario, the schools that have been closed due to the high intensity of the Coronavirus pandemic have reopened once again in Tamil Nadu from 1st February 2022.
It is now revealed that those students who have enrolled themselves for various research studies in Chennai have been finding it very difficult in the Coronavirus infection pandemic.
For the PhD programme in Anna University or AU, a student named Mugadha has enrolled herself in the year 2018. She spoke about how the Coronavirus pandemic was severe in the last 2 years and how she has been struggling with her research study. She added that she was doing well in her research until the Coronavirus pandemic struck in 2020 and lockdown was announced. The shocking piece of information is that she is now considering dropping out of her research study. Truth is that she hasn’t made any progress in her research work. This is now the story of many research scholars in Chennai.
It is worth mentioning that the research labs have reopened again now as the Covid19 infection has been brought under control but the uncertainty regarding the next lock down has been making many research students unable to continue in their works. According to K.P. Jaya, director centre for research, Anna University it was very clear that in June 2020 online mechanism was introduced to help the research students to defend their viva virtually. By this, any delay in getting the PhD degrees would be prevented. By following Covid-19 protocols, the research scholars were allowed to work in the labs.
It was later mentioned by Mr. R. Velraj, vice-chancellor of AU that the research students would be provided enough time to finish their research studies. He hinted that many extensions have been provided for the researchers to complete their works.
