Message from the Vice-Chancellor to students - 19/03/20

Dear student,

As you know, we’re living through unprecedented events whose course is difficult to predict. What we do know is that life will not be the same for a period of weeks and months, and that we are all having to make changes that would have been inconceivable only a few days ago.

That’s why I took the opportunity this week to record this short video message.

First and foremost, I wanted to thank you for your calm and co-operative response. I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep up with and follow the advice provided by Public Health Wales.

We all have an incredibly important role to play in helping to stop the spread of the virus by reducing social contact as far as possible and observing all the precautions such as hand-washing that we have become so familiar with.

It is likely that we will have to continue to make changes as the epidemic progresses, and that there will be knock-on effects that we cannot predict. I appreciate this continues to cause concern and uncertainty for many of you.

The inevitable consequence of things like yesterday’s school closure announcement is the perception that the country is moving towards lock-down. I want to stress that universities have not been instructed to close, and as we adapt to these daily changes, we will continue to remain open and do everything we can to support you and your studies remotely.

Many of you are living on campus and whilst teaching and assessment can be carried out in a different way, there are some services and areas of research that cannot, so we must adapt to that.

I am also particularly mindful of our international students who are separated from friends and family and may be unable to travel because of the pandemic. We also understand that whilst many of our students will choose to leave Cardiff to return home, this may not be appropriate or possible for everyone.  Our halls of residence will remain open and if you do choose to go home, your university accommodation and your belongings will be here for your return and throughout, until the end of this academic year.

It’s important to us that we know if you are staying in Cardiff as we will want to keep in touch with you during these unprecedented times. All students are therefore asked to complete this quick online form so that we know who is staying in Cardiff, that we have your correct address and a contact number.

This is so that we can contact and support all of you in the coming weeks. We will be back in touch shortly. In addition, I will also be writing to all international students setting out what we are doing to support you.

I know that at a time like this, our first thoughts are with our loved ones, our family and friends and you will be thinking of travelling.  Before planning any travel, including return travel to the UK, you should check the latest advice issued by the Foreign Commonwealth Office. The situation with coronavirus continues to change quickly. Travel advice may change whilst you are away from Cardiff and this may make returning to the UK more difficult.

Our aim throughout this challenging period is to ensure that you are safe and receive regular information, advice and updates from the University, and we will continue to do our best to get the information you need.

All our guidance to students regarding the coronavirus outbreak (COVID 19) is being regularly updated and I would encourage you to stay in touch with your School.

Finally, whilst many of us may not see each other in person for some time, let’s continue to work together, study together and support each other through this crisis which, however difficult it seems now, will come to an end in due course.

Kind regards,

Colin Riordan

Vice-Chancellor