Most undergraduates in University College Dublin (UCD) will spend between 40 to 60 per cent of their normal schedule in classrooms next year, while postgraduate students will spend between 75 and 100 per cent of their learning time in classrooms, the college announced this evening.
In an email to students this evening, UCD Registrar and Deputy President Mark Rogers outlined the plans for next year, saying that the university had prepared “a number of teaching scenarios for the autumn trimester, designed to maximise face-to-face engagement between students and lecturers”.
Rogers said that changes would be “minimal” for most postgraduate students, while undergraduate students in normally large lectures may be limited in attendance or else take place remotely.
The college is going to supply a “hybrid model of real-time streaming and recorded lectures and classes in many programmes for students who are not able to attend campus in the autumn trimester.”
He added that “if the public health position changes, the University will implement revised teaching scenarios accordingly”.
Residences will remain full throughout the year, and UCD will offer students who have to self isolate free accommodation for the duration of their quarantine.
UCD has also assured students who missed out on clinical placements earlier this year that it plans to cover these placements in the remaining years of students’ courses to fulfill professional requirements.
Within UCD’s six colleges, each will devise an individual teaching and learning strategy that best suits the requirement of the individual college.
Rogers encouraged students to “plan to spend as much time as possible on campus so that you can experience the benefits of personal interaction and engagement with your fellow students and faculty”.
