Online classes are likely to continue into next year, along with a return to real-life contact âin a responsible wayâ, Provost Patrick Prendergast said this evening.
While large lectures will be delivered online, smaller lectures, seminars and tutorials will return to campus, Prendergast said, in a video released on Twitter tonight. Groups will, however, be moved into larger lecture theatres to allow for social distancing.
Last month, this newspaper reported that Trinity was considering moving large lectures online until January 2021.
Speaking from the Provostâs Garden, Prendergast said that âfor the rest of the year and likely into next year, weâll all have to find ways of working, studying and maintaining vital social connectionsâ.
âWe will do this through maintaining the excellent online contact we have established in lockdown, while resuming real-life contact â in a responsible way.â
âIt wonât be either/orâ, he added. âWe will still have many online meetings and talks, but we will also meet face to face.â
Prendergast also announced the cancellation of the August weekend â a weekend when Trinity hosts âblack-tie banquetsâ, lectures and campus tours for alumni.
He said: âFor alumni who are looking forward to the August weekend, traditionally this is a packed event and Iâm afraid thereâs no way to socially distance hundreds of people, so the Alumni Weekend cant go ahead this year.â
âAnd in terms of myself and my colleaguesâ attendance at alumni events abroad, weâll have to see whatâs possibleâ, he added.
In a speech that was at times poignant, the provost said that he looked forward to talking to students and colleagues next year and walking âthrough our resurgent campus in the autumn, pulsating again with people and ideasâ.
He also expressed sympathy for final-year students, saying: âAfter four years, you deserved the âpost-Finals euphoriaâ: saying goodbye to your lecturers and a last long evening outside the Pav. We share your disappointment.â
He added, however, that College hoped to organise an event next year for this yearâs graduates.
It is still unclear, however, when first-year students will enter Trinity.
Tom Molloy, Trinityâs director of public affairs and communications, told The University Times this afternoon that Trinity was still working through various issues caused by the new leaving certificate format and could not say when first years will start college.
Minister for Education Joe McHugh today announced the governmentâs decision to introduce âCalculated Gradesâ â which will be decided by teachers based on the previous performance of students â while also giving students the option of sitting the leaving certificate at a later date.
The governmentâs website says that while it âcanât be specificâ about what date first-year students will start college, it will likely be in late September or early October.
Vice-Provost Jurgen Barkhoff said at College Board last month that first-year students were likely to begin at the start of November, three members of Board told The University Times.