Dear all,
Many thanks for all your feedback on our proposals for how we, as a community, could return to our campuses safely. I am pleased to be writing now to share the detail of how we will do this. I know that everyone is very keen to hear how we can live, learn and work on our campuses – both now and for the new academic year.
We have revised and developed our plan following comments and feedback from staff and students. The plan will inform the way in which we will manage our safe return to on-campus work and study.
We have also developed guidance on, for example, how the spaces on our campuses will be used, how we should behave when we come on to campus, and the things we all need to consider before we do so to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all staff and students.
Our ‘How to come onto our campuses’ pages for staff and for students have been updated to share this information with you so that you can see how we are planning to keep you safe and what will be expected of you. I would ask all staff and students to read the contents of these webpages carefully. Please do continue to review them, as they will be updated to reflect changing government requirements and scientific advice. We will share detailed communications as and when changes happen. If you have any questions, please contact covid19@essex.ac.uk.
The Business Continuity Plan sets out four different levels of protection – Advanced (the most stringent), Enhanced, Sustained and Targeted.
We are currently in Advanced Protection.
The University’s Council (our governing body) will consider whether the time is right to alter our level of protection at their meeting of 9 July, after reviewing and assessing the guidance and policy documents that we have developed. Our proposal is that we should move to Enhanced Protection from 13 July. Once we are ready to move to Enhanced Protection, we will let you know. When we move to Enhanced Protection, we will begin re-opening campus in a carefully planned and phased way and access to campus will still be limited. Staff and students who have a specific need to come onto campus will be able to do so, with approval, as part of a phased return plan. Everyone else – and those who can – should continue to work and study from home, until we move into Sustained Protection, which will not be before 7 September at the earliest.
The approaches we have developed allow us to start a careful and phased return to on-campus work and study and to plan for the new academic year. As one component of this, and in line with Government guidance, we will be building our timetable on the basis of a requirement for 1 metre of social distancing, where the characteristics of the teaching room (such as layout and ventilation) and the type of activity make this appropriate, with a 2 metre social distance between lecturers and students. This will require that we all follow guidance on other mitigations needed to support this level of occupation of our teaching rooms (for example, including the wearing of face coverings).
When you return to campus, plans will be in place to protect our community. This does mean that the campuses will look a little different in places (for example, with new screens in place in some areas, and updated signage) – but they will still be the Essex we all know as our work and study place.
We are continuing to work hard on further enhancements to our plans, in consultation with our campus trade unions and safety representatives. For example, we know how important it will be to have a clear approach to test, track and trace as part of our preventative and responsive measures. We will keep you updated as this additional work progresses.
Lastly, I want to send huge thanks to everyone who has helped keep our University operations going, both those working remotely, and those members of staff who have been on site and have kept our campuses running in the last few months. You have been central to supporting all the students who have remained in our residences – students who call our campuses home. Thank you so much for your support and dedication during this challenging time.
With best wishes to all,
Bryn Morris
Registrar & Secretary
University of Essex