The Incident Management Team is continuing to do a lot of work liaising with our staff and students who are affected by the coronavirus situation, both by travel restrictions and the mandatory 14-day stand-down period. We currently have 16 of our International students in self-isolation in New Zealand; all of them have accommodation and the support they need. Today we met with the representative of Unitec’s Chinese Student Association to hear feedback from students – they appreciate the proactive approach we have taken, and we are working to offer them further guidance and support where needed.
According to data from our International Student Advisory Team, we currently have around 75 students off-shore, waiting to enter New Zealand once the travel restrictions are lifted. Our Te Puna Ako team is continuing to work on resources for teachers so they can support their learners from a distance. We are continuing to actively communicate with other students who haven’t yet indicated what support they need.
We are encouraging staff and students to self-manage wherever possible, and will continue to adhere to the mandatory quarantine period until further notice from officials. The provision of a medical certificate is not necessary.
We’re preparing for the arrival of our first group of UPC students at the Mt Albert campus on Monday and have prepared a brief module for staff and lecturers to deliver at the start of class. This will include guidance on practicing good hygiene, including covering your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, washing hands with soap and water or hand sanitizer, refraining from spitting and staying at home if you feel unwell. All these messages are reinforced in the World Health Organization posters you’ll see around both our campuses and we will be adding video messages to our screens in Te Puna and Waitākere in coming days.
We emphasise again that there are no reported cases of coronavirus in New Zealand to date, but we will continue to closely and actively monitor the situation and take a precautionary, preventative approach.
FAQs: Updated as at 3 February 2020
Hi,
EAS also have a large number of block course students starting classes on Monday. Is there specific information we should be sharing with them also?
Laura
Hi Laura, there are some updated FAQs in the above post that you should review. There is also a short presentation on hygiene being developed for teaching staff to share with students that should be available today. We recommend that you contact Annette Pitovao who is on the Incident Management team for more inforamation on this.
Hi,
What are UPC students please ?
Kia ora Clive, UPC is our Unitec Pathways College, responsible for connecting school students with Unitec, providing them with the opportunity to experience tertiary education while they’re still at school. The team is led by Andrea Thumath. You can find out more on the Unitec website – https://www.unitec.ac.nz/why-choose-unitec/experience-unitec/vocational-pathways.