A thank you from Professor Richard Reece:

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the University, and particularly on behalf of our students, I would like to take this opportunity to extend my thanks and appreciation for all of the work that you have done to ensure that the campus has been so ready to welcome students this week, and begin teaching for the majority of students next week.

We are living through extraordinary times and it is hard to imagine, even just thinking back to January, that the University experience over the course of the 2020/21 academic year could have changed so radically. For many students, the experience of starting (or restarting) their university life is a stressful and disorienting one. I wanted to take this moment, therefore, to thank all of you for your diligence and generosity as we work together to respond as circumstances require. I have been enormously impressed with the dedication, commitment and skill that all of you have brought to ensuring that we are as ready as we can be for the start of the new term.

I literally cannot say ‘thank you’ enough. The changeable times that we have all encountered since lock-down foster tremendous levels of anxiety and bring each and every one of us face-to-face with profound uncertainty, with worry for loved ones, and with dislocation in all aspects of our lives. By continuing to work together, in a collegiate, supportive and kind way, I have no doubt that that we will overcome undoubted obstacles that we will face as the term progresses.

With many best wishes,

Professor Richard Reece| Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education and Student Experience)

(Watch Richard Reece’s thank you on this YouTube video)