Thiruvananthapuram: About 11 per cent of the BTech final-year students of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University or Kerala Technological University (KTU) do not have access to facilities to take part in online classes, a survey conducted by the university has found.

The students are mostly from the interior regions of the state or from places where there is no internet connectivity, the university said. They should be located and provided with the necessary infrastructure to attend online classes, it said.

The online classes are held from 8:30am to 1:30pm.

There are 34,030 students in BTech final year, of which 650 have got placements.

The university is now trying to find out how many PG students have access to online facilities.

The university said college authorities, PTAs and college unions should take the initiative to ensure all students have internet connectivity.

Colleges should make available all necessary details for students, including the complete curriculum, subject matter videos and links to virtual labs, on their websites, the university said.

This is the responsibility of the principals and the university will set up a process to ensure this is done.

The university has established a COVID cell to look into complaints regarding online learning. It said it will hold regional meetings of principals and college union chairpersons to discuss the problems with online learning.

The university said the BTech students can make use of the online facilities that local institutions make available for school students.

The students will be allowed to use the computer labs in any nearby government, aided or self-financing college and all colleges have been directed to enable this, the university said.

The colleges have also been given the allotment list of students without internet connectivity.

College unions should take the lead in ensuring all students have access to the new way of learning through the ‘smart campus’ initiative. The three best unions will be given a cash award of Rs20,000 each, university vice-chancellor Dr M S Rajasree said.