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THE HIGHER EDUCATION institutions represented by the Irish Universities Association (IUA), the Technological Higher Education Association (THEA) and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) have announced their plans for a safe return to campuses this September with “maximum on-site presence”.
The three groups said the coordinated approach is “centred on the overwhelming desire of students to get back on campus” and “facilitated by the classification of higher education as an essential service and the fact that the vast majority of adults, including students, will have been vaccinated by September”.
Under the plans, higher education institutions (HEIs) will implement sanitation and ventilation measures, as well as occupancy limits in certain locations.
The joint approach from the HEIs builds on the Safe Return Plan published by Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in June and outlines the range of mitigation measures that will be implemented across the sector to provide for a safe reopening, a statement noted.
As set out in the joint paper released today, several measures are being applied across the sector with each HEI adapting the measures to their local context and physical infrastructure.
These measures include the following:
Speaking about the plans, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, chair of the IUA and President of NUI Galway, said: “We are looking forward to welcoming our students back to our campuses.
“We are determined to put in place all the measures advised by public health to make the return to campus safe and sustainable for our students, our staff and for society. A key element of this determination is personal as well as institutional responsibility and we urge all our students to take up the offer of a vaccination in good time for September.”
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Great news. Hopefully vast majority will be vaccinated. Best of luck to them all – both faculty and students.
All standard lectures should be available online. Tutorials and other interactive engagement should replace lectures. Use the technology.
@Jim Monaghan:
Ah but Jim, if students could stay home, they would miss the opportunity to pay the colleges €1200 a month for a moldy bedsit. That accommodation money is the real lifeblood of colleges.
@David Bourke: the real lifeblood of the government I think you mean. The ‘Irish people’ depending on how you like to draw your line in the sand. Dig down another level and you could say ‘the life blood of David Bourke’ no?
@David Bourke: campus accommodation is usually privately owned and managed so its not the colleges profiting from mouldy bedsits!
All sounds very nice but when young adults have to share their accommodation in on campus facilities with 5 others like my daughter I’d worry that it will go wrong very quickly even if they are vaccinated. I’d prefer some online lectures at home to be honest
@Hugh Mc Donnell: have you asked your daughter what she prefers?
One thing that became clear quth the pandemic is that the university “leadership teams”, paid 200,000+ because they are such superstars, have no clue. How are we going to manage students entering and exiting big lecture halls without crowding? There is 5 min between classes!
Last year we were left to fend for ourselves, and managed it fairly well on low level. If anything, teaching staff were very innovative, tips were shared, software was introduced. Sack the “presidents” and hire another couple of hundred lecturers with the money saved.
have your say