Vice-Chancellor’s decision on COVID-19: Even more online, even more from home

During this period:

• To further reduce the risk of infection, online forms of teaching and examination must be used wherever possible.
• During this period, in-person teaching and examination will be limited to teaching components and examinations where this is necessary to attain high quality and legal certainty and that cannot be carried out online.
• To reduce the burden on public transport and the risk of crowding in the University’s premises, heads of department/equivalent should seek to further increase the extent to which staff work from home. 

The University is moving to tighter restrictions to step up its contribution to limiting the spread of infection in the community.

Uppsala University has monitored the infection situation at the University closely since the spring and is in regular contact with the regional infection control authorities. The signals from the authorities make it clear that it is not in the University’s premises and activities that infection is spreading. A large proportion of teaching at the University is already online and many measures have been taken in parts that take place with people physically present to prevent infection.

“Thanks to everyone’s great commitment, effective measures have been introduced at the University. However, the government’s decision sends a clear signal to everyone in society that a further tightening is needed, and we would therefore like everyone now to reconsider all aspects and really choose online solutions where possible for the rest of the semester,” says Vice-Chancellor Eva Åkesson.

In consultation with the Management Council, the Vice-Chancellor has taken a new decision (LINK) on even stricter application of the University’s guidelines for the rest of the semester. This means that online solutions are always to be chosen where possible, while retaining the option of physical components where really necessary.

Priority for physical solutions will go to students for whom special educational support has been approved, practical tasks and examinations that cannot be carried out online, and final exams and mandatory components in the final year of educational programmes.

The decision also clarifies that University premises will remain open. This decision will be in effect until 17 January unless otherwise announced. The planning assumption for the 2021 spring semester is that the tighter application of guidelines will end and that it will be possible to conduct education under similar conditions to those that applied during the first half of the autumn semester. A decision in preparation for the spring semester will be taken in mid-December at the latest.