3 June 2020 | Volume 79 | Edition 6
UCT Students Begin a Phased Return to Campus
Caitlin MacDonald
Source: Wordpress
The university administration has presented a plan for the incremental reopening of the campus
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inal-year medical students are returning to UCT, heralding a gradual return of the student population to campus. Three categories of students will begin the phased reopening of the campus and university residences. According to university executives, these groups will return in the following phases: Phase One – final-year medical students. Phase Two – vulnerable students. Phase Three – those who need to use campus facilities to complete the academic year. Phase Four – all students to campus, circumstances permitting
that one proposed model would triangulate socioeconomic disadvantage, lack of connectivity, and a consideration of the student’s year of study. Once identified, these vulnerable students will return to university residences, national regulations permitting, in order to continue remote learning with tutorial support. The Student Representative Council (SRC) has called for the urgent implementation of phase two in aid of academically vulnerable students.
During a two hour online special assembly on Thursday, May 14th led by Vice-Chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng and the UCT executive, Pro- “level three of lockdown will allow for a maximum of 33% of fessor Loretta Feris, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Transformation, out- the student population to return to campuses and university residences” lined this four-phased approach to the reopening of the campus. Prof. Feris emphasized that this plan will be enacted in accordance with risk-management, fairness, equity, and National State of Disaster regulations. She went on to detail that incoming staff and students will be This plan will proceed in accordance with the easing of the national screened for COVID-19, provided with personal protective equipment lockdown. On Saturday, May 23rd, the Minister of Higher Education, Sci(PPE), and accommodated in a manner that allows for social distancing. ence and Technology, Dr Blade Nzimande, announced that level three of lockdown will allow for a maximum of 33% of the student population to return to campuses and university residences with an additional 33% “this plan will be enacted in accordance with risk-management, of students joining their peers under level two and the remaining student body returning under level one. fairness, equity, and National State of Disaster regulations” A task force from the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching is developing the criteria for the identification of academically vulnerable students due to return in the second phase of the campus’ reopening. In a virtual sitting of the Student Parliament on Thursday, May 21st, Undergraduate Academics Coordinator, Lance-Selae August, reported
UCT’s prioritised admission of final-year medical students echoes Dr Nzimande’s call for this cohort to complete their academic year. These returning medical students must undergo a 14-day quarantine before commencing their work at Groote Schuur Hospital. According to Prof. Feris, conversations concerning the return of other Faculty of Health Sciences students are ongoing.