Students return to UoR
Last updated 21st Sep 2020
Hundreds of students have started their first day at the university of Reading arriving on campus to enrol and start finding their way around.
The university estimates around 1,200 students will enrol today (Monday) with up to 5,000 arriving by the end of the week. The university returners will then push numbers up to around 20,000.
The atmosphere was described as quieter compared to the usual start to Freshers week, but there were still plenty of smiling faces as students picked up their campus cards and enjoyed the September sunshine.
A giant open sided marquee has been erected to use as a meeting place.
Social distancing signs, hand sanitiser stations and people wearing face coverings gave away the fact that this is anything but a usual university term.
New systems include creating student ‘household groups’ in which students can live and socialise, adapting timetables to move large lectures and classes online, and introducing a mix of socially distanced face-to-face teaching with digital methods. There will also be robust systems to encourage students to stick to the rules, whether on or off campus.
Other measure include installing more than 600 new hand sanitising stations, installing one-way systems in scores of buildings, producing and installing thousands of new safety and instruction signs, and adapting teaching rooms and catering venues to be used in a socially-distanced way.
For example, the Reading University Students’ Union (RUSU) has converted its largest venue from a 1,500-capacity nightclub into a spacious, table-service café-bar, where students can socialise within their small household groups, in groups of six or fewer.
Professor Van de Noort added: “I am very proud of the way our students and colleagues have risen to the challenge of coronavirus so far, but we are reminded by the recent uptick in transmission rates across the UK that there is still more work for us all to do.
“We understand there is some concern among local people that student populations could lead to local outbreaks of covid-19, which is why we are working closely with partners in the NHS, government, councils and police and doing all we can to reduce risks.”
Lectures will be a mix of online and smaller groups.
The Freshers' Fayres which offer up all the different activities at the university have been delayed until next month to give anyone self-isolating on arrival at the university a chance to attend.
Today there were queues waiting to enter the campus supermarket but other than that there were no signs of any particular disruption to student life.
The university is hoping to open a coronavirus test centre for students, staff and local people. At the moment people in Reading have to travel to Newbury for the nearest testing area.