University of Limerick has today informed staff and students that the academic delivery of programmes will be primarily online for the rest of the Autumn Semester.
The majority of courses will accordingly remain online. Some essential on-campus learning activities will continue, including all research activities, lab-based and practical tuition and certain small-scale tutorials that cannot happen online.
Strict social distancing and face covering protocols will remain in place for any essential on campus activity.
Speaking about the notification, UL Vice President Academic Affairs and Student Engagement Professor Nigel Healey, said: “This is not the student experience we would have wanted for our students, but for the time being we have to live with COVID 19 and UL staff have moved mountains since the crisis began to ensure there is no compromise to learning and no impact on degree programmes.
“In order to offer our community some certainty in this very uncertain time we have made the difficult decision to continue with the primarily online academic delivery we were requested to implement just before our students returned.
“This approach not only complies with the Level 3 of The National Framework for Living with COVID-19, but it also allows us reasonable flexibility to comply with an increase in restrictions,” he said.
The majority of UL staff continue to work from home with only those staff working on-site who are essential to on-campus learning.
On-campus accommodation remains open with social distancing restrictions in place. UL Sport remains operational on a pre-booked basis with access to gym facilities and the 50m swimming pool. The Glucksman Library will remain open on a pre-booked basis, as will catering and retail services on campus.
“Limiting the number of students attending campus at any point in time is an important public health measure. One of the things this crisis has made abundantly clear is that the ‘people make the place’ and I look forward to a full return to academic and campus life. However, we must take this collective action now as a university and all of us as individuals have a role to play in halting this second wave of COVID 19,” said Professor Healey.
Full details on all COVID-19 updates can be found here.