Laboratory practicals in the genomic medicine master’s degree will be moved online due to rising coronavirus case numbers.
The shift applies to all genomic medicine laboratory practicals taking place from next Monday, January 10th. Students were not told when the lab sessions would be held in person again.
An email to affected students said: “For the lab practical starting next Monday, we decided to run this remotely without wet-lab work as the COVID19 situation is getting extremely worse.”
In place of the planned wet-lab work, students will conduct research and prepare sequence data remotely, the email explained.
Other schools have not yet indicated whether they too will move any classes online.
Trinity’s Continuation of Learning and Student Activities Group (COLSAG) will have its first meeting since December next week.
Foundation Scholarship (Schols) exams are due to begin next Monday.
In an email statement to The University Times, Trinity Media Relations Officer Catherine O’Mahony said: “As it stands, the plan is indeed for exams (both Schols and those JF that are scheduled to be in person) to go ahead in person. The usual caveat applies to this; unless public health guidelines change.”
In December, College Board members were asked to approve contingency plans for the exams after a memo was circulated to the Trinity Living with COVID committee outlining the proposed plans.
The memo said that while restrictions are unlikely to change between now and January 10th, provisions should be made for the exams to move online if public health guidelines change and in-person sittings are not allowed.
It said that students will be permitted to defer their sitting the exams to January 2023 if they test positive for coronavirus, have coronavirus symptoms or have been deemed a close contact of a positive case.
Queen’s University Belfast announced last month that it would move most classes online this semester as a “precautionary measure”.
BBC News reported that the decision to pause in-person teaching was made “having reviewed the developing public health situation and taken clinical advice”.
In an email to students, Queen’s said that “the majority of lectures, tutorials and seminars will be delivered online” from Monday, January 10th.
Some classes such as laboratory practicals may still be held in person out of necessity, the email said.
