Author: Prof. Mark E. Smith, Vice-Chancellor
Our usual UEB blog correspondent was again ensuring he was taking some well-earned annual leave, so a substitute blog-writer needed to come off the bench.
Active Campus
The bulk of the meeting was devoted to an update and discussion of the extensive work going on under the Active Campus project. It was clear that, in consultation with key stakeholders across the University, a huge amount of detailed and high-quality work has been completed with more underway. The central Active Campus group has recently been expanded to share information with and gain views from a wider membership including ADOFOs, teaching and research leads, other workstream leads, SUSU and there is weekly Trade Union engagement.
We are putting in place a range of measures to create a COVID-secure environment in which our students and staff can learn, research and work in these unusual times as members of an inclusive and caring university community. We all have a part to play in keeping each other safe. UEB agreed, that a key message for all of our staff and students is that, we all need to take responsibility for our own behaviour, and to be aware of the impact that our decisions and actions might have on others around us, especially on those who might be at greater risk from the virus, or who might be caring for people at higher risk.
Our aim for next year is to provide teaching and support for students that is broadly equivalent to our provision in a ‘normal’ year. To enable this we will provide as much face-to-face teaching and other activity on our campuses as we can, combining this with online education as well as social and support activity. We have to be prepared for further periods of ‘lockdown’ in which public health advice requires us to suspend to a greater or lesser extent on-campus activity, so we must be prepared to move back, potentially at very short notice, to entirely online educational and student support provision. UEB confirmed that it is therefore essential that programme teams are preparing an online mode for all teaching, including that which they hope to be able to deliver face-to-face. Of course, understanding that some activity cannot be delivered online.
The curriculum, teaching capacity and timetabling component of this project is in its final phase, with a first draft timetable to be produced during w/c 24 August. It is understood that this is a tight timescale and we are grateful for colleagues understanding this. It will need to be an iterative process, with the final timetable due to be published w/c 14 September. Key features of the timetable are:
- The teaching week will operate Monday to Friday 09:00 to 18:00, including the use of Wednesday afternoons as a temporary change to meet the needs of social distancing.
- Locally agreed variations to the teaching week will be permitted in line with the existing Timetabling and Common Learning Space Management Policy.
- Teaching sessions will commence on the hour from 09:00 and run for the full hour (meaning 60 minutes teaching). Staff are asked to move around the campus between quarter past and quarter to the hour to manage flow and dwell times.
- No student will have back to back lectures, unless it is a planned double session.
- There will be a minimum gap of one hour between teaching delivery sessions for all face-to-face and timetabled online sessions for staff, students and room management.
- Use of all rooms to be co-ordinated next year through the central room booking system to maximise the utility of available University space
It recognised that PGRs are a key part of the university community and we are ensuring that their activity is fully integrated into the programme of reopening buildings. This will be consistent across Faculties and has clearly identified local responsibilities for decision making based on local circumstances.
It was agreed that on-going detailed and transparent communications were critical to all university constituencies.
Southampton City COVID-19 Testing Pilot
UEB received the final report from the first phase of the government-funded pilot programme, based around the concept of weekly testing in the general population. It was designed to assess the feasibility of at-home saliva testing for COVID-19. UEB commended the team for its excellent work that had demonstrated great cooperation across the University. It also demonstrated a great civic partnership between us, Southampton City Council and the University Hospital Southampton, alongside other key players in the local NHS and a wider Hampshire network of public services.
Confirmation and Clearing
There was a lot of discussion around how Confirmation and Clearing had gone. It was noted that the process had gone very smoothly and UEB thanked all colleagues who had contributed. In Clearing there had a been a lot of interest in Southampton, which suggested it was likely to be a positive outcome in terms of numbers, although it was recognised there was still a lot of uncertainty especially with the Government’s position over examination grades and appeals.* To give reassurance to candidates who are appealing the University had made a statement that we would guarantee a place this year to all of those who on appeal made the grades of their offer, except for Medicine because of the constraints placed around clinical placements, but that we would accept these candidates for a 2021 entry.
Voluntary Severance
UEB was updated on the applications so far to the Voluntary Severance scheme. It was pleased to note that there has been interest from right across the University both in terms of areas of activity and scale point.
* At 16.00 on Monday 17 August the UK Government announced that it would use the centre assessed grade for A-level and GCSE exam results rather than the Ofqual algorithm. We await further information from UCAS on how this will be implemented.