Dear staff and students,
Last week we wrote to you highlighting the Government announcement on 13 April. This confirmed that all remaining university students who have not yet returned to campus and in-person teaching would be able to do so from Step 3 of the Government’s roadmap, no earlier than 17 May.
The government noted in their supporting guidance, that students and institutions would be given a week’s notice of any reopening in accordance with the timing of Step 3.
As a health science university, the majority of our programmes have been able to return to site already. Students who haven’t been able to come back on campus yet, will be contacted by their course teams with further information about their return as it becomes available. Until instructed otherwise, these students should stay where they are and continue to study online.
Any returning students are strongly encouraged to have a Covid test before they travel back to University, either through their local community testing programme or by ordering a test online.
On returning, students should take three tests at the University asymptomatic testing facility. They should then test twice a week, either using home test kits or our testing centre.
Find more information on the University testing centre here.
We continue to ask staff to test twice a week, if they’re coming on to campus, either at the onsite centre or through the home testing scheme.
If students and staff are testing at home we strongly encourage them to report their results, whether positive, negative or void as per NHS instructions. If you test positive by any method, you must isolate in order to prevent passing on the virus and inform the University. Staff should contact their line manager and hrhelp@sgul.ac.uk and students should contact coronavirusconcern@sgul.ac.uk. Following a positive LFD test result, students and staff should take a follow-up polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test as soon as possible.
For travel guidance for students arriving from within the UK please see page 22 of the guidance, international students please see pages 23-25 of the guidance.
For more information, please see the government’s updated guidance to Higher Education institutions.
Letter from Michelle Donelan MP, Minister of State for Universities
Alongside last week’s announcement, Michelle Donelan MP, Minister of State for Universities, sent this letter to students.
Within this letter, Minister Donelan acknowledges what a challenging time this is for students and commends their dedication and commitment to their education. She confirms that students will return in line with Step 3 of the Government roadmap.
The Minister highlights that the government is making available a further £15 million to universities to address student hardship. See more information on applying to the University Access to Learning Fund (ALF) and EU & International Hardship Fund here. The funds are open to eligible undergraduate (UG), postgraduate taught (PG) and postgraduate research (PGR) students.
The letter also raises the importance of student mental health and wellbeing, and highlights the online mental health platform Student Space.
St George’s also has lots of support for students and we recommend using one of the following routes:
- Arrange an appointment with the Counselling team by emailing: counselling@sgul.ac.uk.
- Contact the Students’ Union for support being offered remotely by Lon Teija (Welfare Advisor) and Sarah Jones (Acting President).
- Check updates at www.sgsu.org.uk/covid for ways to get in touch and to find out more about Students’ Union support.
- Approach your Personal Tutor.
- Use one of the online platforms developed to support students with their mental health: Togetherall and Student Minds.
- Join other students and staff for Random Chat every Friday at 5pm (and more often if there is demand).
Minister Donelan further discusses support for students graduating this summer and those at the start of their career.
The University recently held a Careers Week in March 2021 and there is a suite of information and guidance for students and graduates here.
Lastly, the Minister reiterated the importance of testing before returning to campus and regularly once back on site.