Lockdown over, still online class
Quite a few ROCs, colleges and universities are not yet fully open for physical classes. They take their time at the reopening. For example, the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. “We do this for our employees who find it exciting and to let omikron go wild,” says Ron Bormans, chairman of the board of Hogeschool Rotterdam.
Image: Nino Maissouradze
Friday last week made The cabinet announces that MBO and higher education can fully open again. However, all employees and students must wear a mask and no more than 75 people are allowed to sit in a room.
Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences reports on its website: 'You can't open a university of applied sciences with one push of a button, that is much more complex than people often think, so we have to do it carefully.' In an explanation, board chairman Ron Bormans says that it differs per study program when all students are back. “Many courses have a week with limited education, even under normal circumstances it would be quieter. We do, however, take a little bit of time, also to let omikron run its course and to absorb the loss due to illness and absence due to infections.”
After the spring break, the board chairman hopes that all students will receive full physical education again. “You can focus on building slowly, but I prefer to focus on the carefulness of reopening. Employees are worried and everyone has to go through a psychological barrier again.” According to Bormans, students understand the motivations.
Level 3 and 4
For more schools, the switch - from online lessons to face-to-face education - takes time. In senior secondary vocational education, this mainly applies to levels 3 and 4. The other programmes, levels 1 and 2, already had lessons at the institution. Like this writes Scalda - an MBO institution in Zeeland - that students of the care & welfare and education courses will have full lessons on location from last Monday. CIOS, the sports training, is taking online lessons this week, mainly teaching Dutch, English and math online.
At ROC Nijmegen they had to start up for a few days, but it is now "busy at school", says a spokesperson for the institution. Here too the change applied to levels 3 and 4. “Yesterday things were back to normal. Although it was a surprise that the schools were allowed to open completely. The news came on a Friday night and then you can't do much."
Universities
Universities are not yet fully open either. Like this reports Maastricht University that the classes will remain online until the end of January. The University of Groningen aim also on the next education period: 'Our aim is to provide as much physical education as possible with the start of the next block.' From a tour of university magazine Folia it appears that many lectures at the University of Amsterdam remain online during this block of education. The same applies according to Het Parool for the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and the Free University. Here too, the maximum group size is mentioned as an important reason. Utrecht University made announced yesterday that the classes will take place again physically from February 7th. Students are now allowed to come to campus again for 'small-scale meetings', such as mentor meetings.
Wageningen University leaves it to the course coordinators whether the last two weeks of the course block will be taught online or on campus. Since in some subjects as much as 20 percent of students are in quarantine, the university recommends that teachers also offer an online alternative to campus education, reports university magazine Resource.
Pity
The Interstedelijk Studenten Overleg thinks this is a shame and emphasizes that the educational institutions supported the call last week to open higher education as soon as possible. “The fact that they are now waiting for this in many places does not quite rhyme with that. On the other hand, I understand that it is a lot of work," said chairman Lisanne de Roos.
The National Student Union is also not surprised that the switch is taking a while. “It is difficult for institutions to switch so quickly from physical to online and then back again. I expect that there will be much more physical education after the exam period," says chair Ama Boahene.
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