By Iylia Marsya Iskandar
With the COVID-19 pandemic still stretching out in most parts of the world, the public is forced to adapt with “the new normal” and enforce social distancing. Colleges and universities around the world, confronting the pandemic, are studying whether and how to move forward with classes next year.
Cambridge University has become the first institution to take the initiative and plan ahead for the 2020/2021 academic year which starts in October and concludes in summer 2021 and decided to move all “face-to-face” lectures online. This decision was made with the likeliness of social-distancing would still be required until then, according to an announcement.
A spokesperson of the university said, ”The university is constantly adapting to changing advice as it emerges during this pandemic. Given that it is likely that social distancing will continue to be required, the university has decided there will be no face-to-face lectures during the next academic year.
Lectures will continue to be made available online and it may be possible to host smaller teaching groups in person, as long as this conforms to social-distancing requirements. This decision has been taken now to facilitate planning, but as ever, will be reviewed should there be changes to official advice on coronavirus.”
All lectures have been moved online since March with exams carried out virtually.
Elaborating on the pandemic, the Office For Students (OFS) in the United Kingdom urged all universities not to promise students that things will get back to “normal” in the Autumn term if it is unlikely so.
The Chief Executive of the OFS, Nicola Dandridge, also said that students should be told what kind of experience they will receive in advance before accepting any offers to institutions.***