Welcome back to campus - Professor Suzanne Le Mire
I am delighted that through the hard work and dedication of many, we can now welcome our students back to campus. I know your planning is well advanced to teach our students in person, or in online classes for our students offshore. As we kick off our Orientation for international students today, and our Orientation week for all, next week, it is really pleasing to know that already almost 1000 international students have re-joined us on campus.
Professor Suzanne Le Mire
This is not to minimise the challenges. Some students, both international and domestic, will never have had a full campus experience. Accordingly, we may have third year students with first year transition needs (where do I go for my tutorial/lecture/lab? I don’t know anyone!). Icebreaker games in third year classes may never have been so useful. We may also need to build up student confidence in the face-to-face experience. We have had a proportion of onshore students in our online classes in the past two years. We are now actively encouraging these students to move to in-person attendance. The student FAQs capture this sentiment. Finally, of course, there are the logistical challenges of managing COVID risk. We have now prepared a series of protocols that we hope will help you prepare for your classes, and manage the disruptions that may occur. You can view this document here.
Overall though, in two weeks’ time, we will see the levels of excitement on campus rise as our students, new and continuing, join us for their transformative education. We (and they) have been waiting for this. I offer my thanks as you prepare and create the conditions for this to go ahead.
Of course, if there is anything I, and colleagues in DASE, can do to help, please get in touch.
Best wishes
Suzanne
Professor Suzanne Le Mire
Interim Pro-Vice Chancellor (Student Learning)