Trinity students are to get a long-awaited update this Friday on the fate of next year’s Erasmus and Study Abroad programmes, the College’s Global Relations Office has said.
On Twitter today, the Global Relations Office wrote that the College’s vice-president for global relations, Juliette Hussey, will inform staff and students about Erasmus this Friday.
“Deliberations are currently ongoing with partner universities, and internally with Schools”, said the tweet, sent in reply to an article published by this newspaper. “The Vice-President for Global Relations will issue an email to the Trinity community regarding Erasmus on Friday 29th of May.”
Trinity students have been waiting for weeks on an update from the College over Erasmus and Study Abroad.
Several Irish universities – including University College Dublin (UCD), Dublin City University (DCU) and the University of Limerick (UL) – have already announced partial suspensions of Erasmus and Study Abroad programmes.
On May 12th, Niamh Burke, the associate director of partnerships in Trinity’s Global Relations Office, wrote in an email statement to The University Times: “We are working closely with Trinity’s senior management, partner universities and affected students on this subject.”
The tweet from Trinity’s Global Relations Office.
“Since much also depends on the positions our university partners and the European Commission as regards Erasmus, it is a fluid situation”, she said, but added that “the Global Relations Office and other relevant departments are actively working on planning for various scenarios”.
Trinity declined to offer specifics on the plans it is considering.
Travel restrictions and fears about the spread of the virus will likely force many colleges to consider the viability of Erasmus and Study Abroad programmes over the coming months.
UL told students due to travel abroad next year that it was suspending the programmes due to “current travel restrictions and with no indication when these will lift”.
The email, signed by UL’s Critical Operations Team and Executive Committee and seen by The University Times, said: “After much consideration and with regret, we have decided at this stage – so as to allow for alternative planning for our students – that the Erasmus and Non EU Exchange mobility programmes will be suspended for the Autumn Semester and alternative programmes will be put in place for those UL students who had been scheduled to study abroad for their Autumn Semester.”
“We realise that this is very disappointing for students, but at present it is the only safe option”, the email said.
