Swiss Universities are partially reopening: What do students think?
Switzerland has further relaxed its Covid-19 restrictions, since infection and hospitalisation rates have become increasingly stable. Currently, the vaccination roll-out is speeding up to over 51,000 jabs a day.
With the easing of restrictions it is now possible, for university students in Switzerland to return to campus after a year of online teaching, following recent government approval.
But there are still some restrictions; no more than 50 people in a class and rooms should not be filled beyond a third of capacity, mask wearing and hygiene measures also still apply.
For its part, the University of Geneva said that it would stick to online learning until the end of the spring semester on May 28, as it had announced earlier. This is to give stability to students and professors during what has been a very unpredictable time.
photo credit: Erin Kalejs
Many other Swiss universities have now confirmed that they will either go back to some face to face teaching within the next few weeks or that they will remain online for the rest of the semester.
Switzerland is not the only country that has been keeping its university campuses shut during the pandemic. Universities in neighbouring countries France, Germany and Italy are also closed for on-campus teaching.
University students in England will be allowed to return to face-to-face teaching from May 17 “at the earliest”.
Lana, a 19 year old university student studying in Geneva shared her thoughts and concerns on returning to in person learning. Listen to the audio interview below to find out what she said.
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Featured image by Mira Kireeva on Unsplash
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