Students will be allowed to take their course fully online only if they are facing exceptional circumstances such as “financial hardship, underlying documented medical condition, immunocompromised and/or any disabled student requests”, College has announced.
Undergraduate students who wish to take their courses online will have to apply to a student cases email address for approval, and will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Postgraduate students will have to send an application to their course director.
In an email to staff and students, Secretary to the College and Senior Lecturer Kevin MItchell said that “the University Council has mandated that as much face-to-face teaching as possible should be scheduled for all students”.
“It should be noted that such cases should be considered the exception rather than the norm and there will be no fee reduction for any student who is granted permission to attend wholly online”, they added.
The email also said that timetables would be published by September 14th “at the latest.”
In accordance with new government regulations, students will have to wear face masks during all teaching and learning events, in the Library and in other public spaces like the Buttery and the Book of Kells.
Staff have been advised to wear visors instead of masks, in order to help them communicate more clearly.
Face masks will not be mandatory for students who cannot put on, wear or remove a face covering “without severe distress” based on health grounds.
Staff and students may also remove their masks to “communicate with a person who has difficulties communicating”, to provide “emergency assistance or to provide care or assistance to a vulnerable person” or to “avoid harm or injury, or the risk of harm or injury”.
As College prepares for reopening, top Trinity immunologist Luke O’Neill has advised that College test all staff and students for the coronavirus twice weekly.
In an interview with The University Times, O’Neill said that “the goal is very simple: we don’t want students getting infected in our university, and we don’t want our staff getting infected either”.
“What’s the best way to ensure that? It’s testing and isolating. That’s the best way to – almost – guarantee that.”
