UL students organising house parties could be fined or expelled 

There are reports some UL students are planning large-scale gatherings when the new semester starts in the coming days. Picture: iStock

Students at University of Limerick who organise house parties that break Covid rules could be fined or expelled.

Colleges and institutes of technology have been told to have as few students on campus as possible for the next few weeks.

Over the last week, a small number of parties took place but there are reports some UL students are planning large-scale gatherings when the new semester starts in the coming days.

Associate Vice President Patrick Ryan says they'll be taking "every opportunity to promote public health."

"We have senior staff who will be out and about from Sunday evening on, with the Students Union and with an Garda Síochána for the next three weeks"

In the very small cases if there are problems and issues and complaints reported to us there are mechanisms in place that we can use to address and review those issues to prevent this happening as much as possible.

A spokesperson for UL told the Irish Examiner: "Students at UL are subject to a Code of Conduct. Action can be taken against students through the code of conduct who, by breaching public health guidelines, may be considered to have engaged in conduct that is harmful to others."

They said that while they can not comment on individual homes outside of UL's on-campus accommodation or unaffiliated social media accounts they said that penalties include "monetary, academic, suspension, and expulsion.”

Following a UL Executive Council, students were informed that all programmes from the Kemmy Business School, all academic lectures from the Faculty of Education and all programmes from the Health Sciences and Faculty of Science and Engineering will take place entirely online for two weeks.

All academic delivery for programmes of the Kemmy Business School @BusinessAtUL will now be entirely online for the next 2 weeks. https://t.co/dXb5npTAmW

— University Of Limerick (@UL) September 25, 2020

All social and club events on campus are cancelled and they are advising students not to travel to Limerick if their classes are being delivered online.