I hope you managed to get something of a break over the Easter period.

Just a brief update from me before the start of term to let you know that Executive Group met on Monday and had an update from COVID-19 response group lead Professor Christina Hughes.

The update covered the work of colleagues associated with examinations and assessment, as well as updates on our infrastructure response and support for staff and student welfare. We are now moving from the immediate/crisis response mode to look at the next few months in terms of delivering examinations, exam boards, supporting completing students and enabling ongoing work related to the COVID-19 response and planning ahead for the autumn and the start of the 20/21 academic year.

In order to prepare for the autumn term, I have asked Professor Richard Reece, our new Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education and Student Experience, to work with colleagues across the University to bring together a team to begin to map out how we would do this.

We remain operational as a University and, while we are uncertain as to the exact conditions we will be working in over the next few months, we want to be clear with current, returning and prospective students, our partners and stakeholders that we remain ‘open’ and are planning our autumn activity. We will always of course keep health and safety issues front and centre and so we will need to prepare for a range of scenarios. Further updates and ways to get involved will be shared over the next few weeks. Division Directors will also be working with their Schools to progress this work with Richard.

In the meantime, thank you all for all that you are doing. I hope you, your families and friends are all well.

Karen

Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President