UCC to have shorter and smaller lectures under return-to-college protocols 

Students at University College Cork will have shorter lectures and will face capacity restrictions in teaching spaces under a raft of 'return-to-campus' protocols that have been announced. File picture: Denis Scannell

Students at University College Cork (UCC) will have shorter lectures and will face capacity restrictions in teaching spaces under a raft of "return-to-campus" protocols that have been announced.

UCC president Prof John O’Halloran outlined the measures for the new academic year in an email to students on Wednesday.

“The past 18 months have been a challenging time for you and I thank you all for your resilience, co-operation and hard work throughout the period of this pandemic,” he said.

“The latest guidelines for our sector can give us cause for renewed optimism as we welcome a return to greater on-campus activity for the university in the coming weeks. We very much look forward to delivering the on-campus UCC student experience to you once more.” 

Face coverings

Prof O’Halloran said face-to-face teaching will be permitted but students will be required to wear face coverings during lectures.

He said teaching spaces will operate at 80% of the normal (pre-Covid) room capacity – limiting capacity in a 100-space room to 80 people, for example – and there will also be an overall cap of 200 attendees, including the lecturer, in the larger lecture theatres.

The duration of lectures will be reduced to ensure sufficient time for a changeover between each.

It will mean that for a traditional one-hour slot, the lecture will start five minutes after the hour, with 45 minutes of teaching time, and then 15 minutes for a changeover.

For two-hour lecture slots, lecturers have been asked to consider having an outdoor air break halfway through.

The Boole and Brookfield libraries will operate at 80% of user capacity, with library users required to use the pre-booking system and to wear face coverings while inside.

The libraries will also open from 7am to 2am seven days a week to ensure greater access to the facilities, with reading rooms being made available in the Kampus Kitchen and the mini-restaurant, and additional reading rooms being made available if required, Prof O'Halloran said.

The on-campus restaurants and cafés will continue operating a takeaway service pending further Government guidance and some outdoor covered spaces with benches will be provided at the Hub, Biosciences and North Mall campus.

Club and society activities permitted

Club and society activities will be permitted in line with public health guidelines, with proposed events to be reviewed by the college authorities.

Most taught postgraduate programmes, as well as second, third and fourth-year undergraduate students, will start on September 13.

With the Leaving Cert results due out on September 3, and first-round CAO offers issued on September 7, first-year students will start on September 27.

A range of online orientation resources for first-year students will be available from September 7 but onsite tours of campus will start on September 13, with a dedicated first-year orientation day on September 25.

Onsite campus tours for second-year students will start on September 1 and a dedicated second-year event will take place on campus on September 11.

Measures kept under review

Prof O’Halloran said all the measures would be kept under constant review by the university’s management team.

He encouraged students to use the UCC Covid tracker app daily, to get vaccinated, and to consider enrolling in the UniCoV study which compares antigen testing with saliva testing to detect asymptomatic Covid-19 infection.

“As we return to campus, it is important that we continue to adhere to the measures in place to reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission, including use of face coverings and good hand hygiene," he said.