Over the last week we have been repeatedly encouraged by the Government and our emergency services to practise social distancing in an effort to reduce the transmission of Coronavirus (COVID-19). Unfortunately, over the weekend we saw many examples of people ignoring this advice in favour of visiting the country’s seaside towns and country villages.

To a point this is understandable, humans are by nature social creatures, and the idea of being locked down and not seeing friends and loved ones for the foreseeable future may seem upsetting. However, the potential dangers of ignoring this advice far outweigh the social implications.

Even if you are not showing symptoms, or are unlikely to suffer due to the virus, you may still pose a risk to those who are more vulnerable.

This is one of the main reasons that we decided to move learning and teaching at BGU online for the foreseeable future. It was not an easy decision but I am confident it was the best one to make for the health and wellbeing of our students and staff.

I implore every member of our community to follow the Government and Public Health England’s advice on social distancing. I am hopeful that we may soon start to see the end of current circumstances but this is only possible if we all make hard choices and work together. Remember that following the advice does not mean you have to completely isolate yourself, we are lucky to live in a technological age with an amazing array of digital communication options available to us. As an institution we are also working hard to craft innovative systems, such as our new Library Live Chat, to ensure that members of community are able to stay in regular contact with us and can continue to access support and guidance at any time.

As I said when we made the difficult decision to transition to online learning, I look forward to welcoming everyone back onto campus as soon as possible, until then please stay safe and continue to protect the health of yourselves and those around you.

You can find more information on the work being done BGU to support or community on our Remote Learning web page.

Yours sincerely,

Rev’d Canon Professor Peter Neil

THE REVEREND CANON PROFESSOR PETER NEIL

Vice-Chancellor Bishop Grosseteste University

Full Government guidance on social distancing can be found by clicking here.


23rd March 2020