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University response to national lockdown announcement

From Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President:

I wanted to write to you following yesterday’s announcement by the Prime Minister that we are now in a third national lockdown, and to update you on our current position. Unlike the second lockdown in November, schools and universities will be closed for face-to-face activities, with a few exceptions.

As a result of this news, we will now deliver all teaching online until the end of February apart from those studying medicine, pharmacy or social work. We will be writing to students today to let them know this decision supersedes all previous arrangements and to confirm that the start of term remains 18 January 2021. We will continue to provide essential services to those who are already living on campus.

All staff are to work from home apart from those designated by the Government as essential (or critical) workers who need to work on campus due to the nature of their jobs.  You will shortly receive confirmation from your line manager if this applies to you.

Many staff working at home also come under the critical worker category. If you need to have your status confirmed to enable children to go to school, please contact hrcovid19@kent.ac.uk.

We will continue to follow Government legislation and public health guidance. The health and wellbeing of our staff and students remains at the heart of all decision-making and the work done by the Silver and Gold teams means we are well-prepared to respond to this latest situation.

This third lockdown will impact on all our lives in very different ways and we will continue to support you during this worrying time.

We are aware of that many of you will once again be impacted by the closure of schools and are looking at how we might further help staff affected in this way.

We will continue to provide regular updates to staff over the coming weeks.

I appreciate the difficulties many of you are facing and I thank you for all your continuing hard work and support at this time.

With my very best wishes to you and your family,

Karen

Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President