MARCH 19
Dear students,
We are meeting daily to discuss the best ways to continue to support your learning as we move to online delivery. Our primary goal is to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and protect your health and wellbeing.
Closures
We know that many of you are concerned about social distancing as well as health and safety issues directly related to COVID-19. But we also want to ensure you still have access to spaces for as long as possible. At the same time, we are experiencing increasing difficulties with staffing.
We have therefore had to decide to close Kimberlin Library as from 6pm on Sunday. Extensive online resources and chat-based support will be available despite this closure.
As an alternative, we will open the ground floor of Eric Wood on Monday morning at 8am and our intention is that it will be open from 8pm to 8am every day next week (Monday-Friday).
We will also be closing all computing labs outside Kimberlin from the end of TOMORROW, 20 March 2020. Computers will be available in Kimberlin through to Sunday and then in Eric Wood from Monday. We know that many of you require specific software and we will endeavour to keep these available. We will keep in mind the impact on your studies and if access to software (or the lack of it) has a negative impact we will ensure that this is taken into account.
None of this is in your control, and none of these closures will leave you disadvantaged in assessments or marking.
Hardship Fund
We know not all of you will be able to leave your accommodation on campus and travel home at this time and we want to make sure you are fully supported while you are here. To help with this, we are making more money available through our Hardship Fund. This will help you with food and living costs while you are here. We will have more details on this – along with how to apply – in the next week.
LinkedIn Learning
I announced yesterday that we would be making LinkedIn Learning available to all students. Some of you may have tried to access this and received a message saying there are no available licenses. Please don’t worry; LinkedIn Learning is being prepared to be rolled out next week and we will let you know as soon as it is active and available for you.
Campus
For those of you who are still in Leicester and visiting campus, you will have noticed that it is quieter than usual. From Monday, when we are fully online, this will increase. Any student who wants to return home and is able to is free to make the decision to leave. As noted earlier, we are no longer monitoring your attendance and there are no ramifications for not being present, including for international students.
For those students who need to remain here, please be assured that we are taking your needs fully into account, and especially over the next few weeks. We will keep you regularly updated about services and provisions on campus.
Our situation remains complex and change comes rapidly. I very much appreciate your patience and forbearance as we navigate these very unfamiliar waters.
All my best,
Jackie Labbe
Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic)
Posted on Thursday 19 March 2020