As the Covid-19 lockdown eases, plans to re-open our campuses are progressing according to schedule. The health and safety of all our staff and students remains the priority.

Colleagues in Estates continue to work hard on re-opening buildings on both the Canterbury and Medway campuses. The first phase remains the research labs, libraries and the Registry. At Medway, where there are shared facilities, the Estates team is working closely with Greenwich and Canterbury Christ Church universities.

We continue to work with the trade unions and staff representatives as we move through this process and the risk assessments for opening of the labs have been approved by the JSNCC. The risk assessment for the wider University will be considered at next week’s meeting.

Once the assessments have been approved, HR will engage with senior leaders to identify staff in their areas who need to return to campus. Due to the complexity of the work required, we have revised the previous estimates of when anyone who is currently working at home might return to campus. We are now looking at the start of July at the very earliest.

Deciding who will return to work on campus will depend on a range of factors, including building capacity, personal circumstance, home-working conditions and flexible working arrangements. Our overarching principle remains that we are keeping to national guidance, which states that you should work at home if you can and that only essential staff should be on campus. We will continue to revise our Health & Safety policy in line with any changes to government guidelines.

The move to online exams and assessment has gone well and Exam Boards are in progress. A paper on the shape of the academic year 2020-21, which provides a framework for learning and teaching for next year, has gone before today’s meeting of Senate.

Our aim is to welcome all students on to campus this autumn. If we need to prioritise groups to accommodate social distancing, we will prioritise first years and postgraduate taught and research students.

We will continue to provide updates on our return to campus over the coming months.