Uni gearing to start new academic year on time
SWANSEA University has announced it will be open and ready to teach at the start of the new academic year, with teaching going ahead in person and online from September.
Its university accommodation will also open.
Swansea is the first university in Wales to announce its intentions amid massive uncertainty around student numbers and how student life and study will work during the coronavirus pandemic.
Swansea said all its courses will be “delivered in a dual way” to give both online and face-to-face teaching.
There will be no large lectures to begin with and large Freshers’ Week events won’t take place, a spokeswoman said.
“It’s too early to say what Freshers’ Week will look like, as it will all depend on the government guidance in place at the time,” she added.
The university said it is preparing to deliver online an enrolment, induction and welcome week in September as well as later on in January for students unable to start in September.
Swansea confirmed that it usually admits around 1,200 new noneu students each year.
Some of those, as well as home and EU students, may be unable or unwilling to take up those places during the pandemic disruption, but the university said it has not seen any students deferring at this stage.
University accommodation will be available as normal with “appropriate social distancing measures in place”. This may mean flats for eight people may have half that number, with less students expected, a spokeswoman indicated.
If the UK has quarantine controls in place at the time international students arrive, the university said it will send them information about measures it will take to assist and support them.
Professor Martin Stringer, pro vice-chancellor for education, said:
“Swansea University is shaping its delivery to ensure that despite any travel restrictions, and regardless of wherever its students are, it will ensure all students – whether in Swansea, elsewhere in the UK, or across the world and joining a little later in the academic year when circumstances allow - will be fully part of our university community. The health, safety and support of our students and staff are our first priority in all that we do.
“We will provide more details in coming weeks to keep people up-todate with our plans, and look forward to welcoming students and staff to our community.”
A report last month warned universities in Wales could lose as much as £98 million in income and have to cut more than 1,000 jobs, as a result of Covid-19.
The effect of the pandemic was laid out in a University College Union report predicting that income at universities across the UK could nosedive.
Swansea University is shaping its delivery to ensure that despite any travel restrictions, and regardless of wherever its students are, it will ensure that all students – whether in Swansea, elsewhere in the UK, or across the world and joining a little later in the academic year when circumstances allow - will be fully part of our university community
- Professor Martin Stringer, pro vice-chancellor for education