Earlier this week, the Prime Minister announced a new three-tier system to ‘simplify and standardise’ coronavirus lockdown across England.  The new system will see different parts of the country placed in one of three categories dependent on rates of infection.  At present, Canterbury and Medway are still seeing comparatively low rates, and at this point are in the lowest tier of restrictions. I would like to thank all staff and students in our community, who are all contributing to keeping each other safe by continuing to follow guidance on hand-washing, face coverings and keeping social distance. To date, the number of positive cases among our staff and students continues to be low.

We continue to operate in accordance with Government guidelines, combined with Health and Safety advice and support from the local Health Protection teams in Kent and Medway and to deliver a mix of face-to-face and online activities for our students. This approach, of course, varies from programme to programme, colleagues are keeping all of this activity under review and will make adjustments to ensure the safety and wellbeing of both staff and students. We have a range of support in place for both staff and students and will continue to respond to concerns as they arise.  As I mentioned last week, plans are being are being put in place across the University to enable us to respond to any changes we might be required to make in the delivery of our core activities. We will continue to update our Covid webpages on a regular basis.

This week the Government also announced that next year’s GCSEs and A/AS levels will be held three weeks later to help address the disruptions caused by Covid-19. A/AS level results will be on 24 August and we will now begin to look at what this might mean for our admissions processes.

With my greatest thanks for all the hard work that is taking place across the University at this challenging time.

My very best wishes go to you and your families.

Karen

Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President