Message from the Vice-Chancellor: Coronavirus Update – Impact on the University
Dear Students
I know there is a lot of concern over the impact of coronavirus on our University community, for both staff and students, and with this being a rapidly changing situation it is important to get the latest information to you. There are some developments in our approach I would like you to be aware of.
We do now have our first confirmed case at the University. This is not a surprise given the rapid spread of the virus. In practice, since little testing is now being carried out, we are unlikely to know for certain how many cases we have in the future, but the advice to staff and students remains the same; to continue following guidance from Public Health Wales.
Following on from our email of Friday, we have taken the decision that all face-to-face teaching is being suspended at the end of the day today. We will be moving to online teaching from Monday March 23 – in practice some teaching may be delivered online earlier than this date, and academics will make individual arrangements with their students as appropriate. We have said all along that we will continue to review things and given events over the weekend, we feel it is sensible to bring forward our plans to stop face-to-face teaching, which will cover the vast majority of subjects and classes. This decision encompasses the suspension of face-to-face supervision, assessment and progression for postgraduate research students. All supervision, assessment and progression (including Viva examinations, thesis submission and confirmation of candidature) will take place online from now until Friday 1st May.
The situation for medical and nursing students is different and for all courses leading to a professional registration in the Medical School or the College of Human and Health Sciences, students have been advised to wait for further information from their School or College.
Forthcoming assessment is also highly likely to take different forms than unseen written examinations. We are reviewing how we will deal with this, as we know this is understandably a major concern for our students and also our staff. We are currently looking at alternative arrangements for exams and will be updating you within the next 48 hours.
The University remains open, and the situation is constantly under review. We will update you as soon as we can with any new information with regards to any impact on services.
If you are already self-isolating, in either University or private student accommodation, you should continue to follow the Public Health Wales guidance and contact us via email at myunihub@swansea.ac.uk and let us know, we will then contact you.
I’d like to finish by thanking all of our student community for their patience and understanding at this challenging time, please be reassured that your health and wellbeing are our highest priority, along with ensuring you are able to continue with your studies. Our Senior Management Team and key staff are meeting every day, and we will be issuing regular updates to staff and students. Please continue to follow the updated guidance on our website, which will be updated shortly to include more FAQ’s for different areas of our student community.
Kind regards
Paul Boyle
Professor Paul Boyle
Vice-Chancellor
Student Communications Officer Monday March 16th, 2020
Posted In: Campus News, Messages, Welfare
I would strongly recommend university to disinfect and sterilize the student accommodation, floors, grounds, lifts
Thank you for your recommendation on this matter. We will raise this with Estates and ensure that all students are keep updated with regards to facilities and accommodation going forward. Please continue to keep an eye on the student newsletter and our social media channels.
Please I suggest not just the student accommodation, the whole university premises. some students still show up in uni. China did mass sterilization and it helped them alot. Today, there is no report for new cases in wuhan.
https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-03-19-20-intl-hnk/index.html
Hello Rita, I completely understand your concern surrounding this issue. Swansea University take student and staff welfare very seriously. Therefore we’re very confident such measures will be put in place. This will be communicated via the newsletter and our social media channels. Thanks
Myself and many other students without laptops to work from home have felt hugely disadvantaged by the remote teaching measures and believe all teaching/assessments should be suspended for the remainder of the academic year at least
Hello Aled,
I’m sorry to hear that remote learning has caused such an inconvenience. The Senior Learning and Teaching committee will consider students without the appropriate resource for study, so please don’t feel disadvantaged. Decisions regarding the remainder of the academic year are currently being discussed so please rest assured that all students will be treated fairly. If you can get access to the internet please take a look at our FAQ Pages https://www.swansea.ac.uk/about-us/coronavirus/ which may help with other matters.
Kind regards,
I think there should be more done regarding exams, the way it is being dealt with at the moment is appalling with some modules. Some modules just expect you to read off PowerPoint slides. Students are paying 1000s to be able to have access to lecturers knowledge but now we have to wait 3-5 working days for an email reply whereas before we could ask in lectures and visit in their office hours when stuck on anything. The uni also isn’t taking into consideration that many will be ill in the next couple of weeks, which I have been with flu symptoms therefore have missed a lot of lectures. Therefore if exams do go ahead I think they should be put back a few weeks, many students will have many issues the next few weeks. Personally I think for especially first year and foundation year, exams should be made based on grades from assessments so far. For second and third year I think alternative assessments should be put in place if can and for the exams they should be put on later and be marked more leniently. The following link shows a petition I made and fellow students thta agree and have signed https://www.change.org/p/welsh-government-make-alterations-to-exams-in-universities?recruiter=1053670984&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=psf_combo_share_initial&recruited_by_id=386dbe40-6875-11ea-9b15-dff6a7c8d3f3&utm_content=starter_fb_share_content_en-gb%3Av13