Lectures with over 150 people will be held online next year, College said this morning.
Earlier this week, Provost Linda Doyle said that “big” lectures will be online “for the moment”, but did not specify what constituted big lectures.
In an email to staff and students today, Chief Operating Officer Orla Cunningham and Director of College Health David McGrath said: “When term starts on 13 September (or 27 September for first years), students are permitted on campus for any timetabled (in-person) events that they are involved in.”
“Large lectures above 150 will continue to be online. For lectures between 50 and 150 Schools have discretion as to whether they should be in-person or online. Students who have no timetabled in-person events on a given day will be requested not to attend the campus to manage overall campus capacity”, they said.
The email did not say how long large lectures would continue to take place virtually.
“Guidance for Orientation Weeks will be finalised and issued once the Public Health Guidelines for that period have been issued by government.”
“Trinity is preparing for a return to campus with increased on-site activity and in-person teaching in line with the Discretionary Framework A Safe Return to On-Site Further and Higher Education and Research which the Higher Education sector agreed with government. The Framework’s clear intention is for a ‘predominately on-site learning experience for students and learners’ for the year 2021/22”, the email added.
In an Instagram Live Q and A with Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) President Leah Keogh, the provost said that College was waiting for the government to issue guidelines on what kind of in-person activities will be allowed to take place in the coming academic year.
“We will still have, for the moment, big lectures online, but we’ve signed a pact with all of the universities and institutions in Ireland, about the safe return to on campus education, and it will be the case that everyone will have some in person experience”, she said.
Students will not have the option to dial into lectures remotely if they are taking place in person, Doyle added, but provisions will be made on a case-by-case basis for students who cannot attend physical classes.
Lecturers are being encouraged to record in-person lectures so “everyone can have access to it”, but it’s not the case that you can say: “Okay I want to do this one in person I want to do this one online”, she said.
Correction: 04:37pm, August 13th, 2021
An earlier version of this article incorrectly credited the photographer of the accompanying photo. He is Gearóid Gibbs.
