Professor Chris Hughes, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education), reflects on the last few months and looks ahead to the autumn term 2020.

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"As the new academic year begins, we are pausing to recognise how much there is to be proud of individually, across our teams and as a community. We know that you have been going above and beyond each day so that we are ready for Welcome and the start of term, and it is timely reflect on how far we have come in a few short months to plan and prepare. We want to say thank you to every colleague who has played their part in getting us to this point.

We also want to look ahead to the coming weeks and months.

Our new students join us at the beginning of an exciting journey. Whether they are entering higher education for the first time or returning for further study, their decision to pursue their course will mark a significant moment in their lives, and their enthusiasm to be joining the Warwick community will be no doubt be as palpable as in any other year. There will be added anxieties too as they navigate these challenging circumstances. They may be moving away from home for the first time, juggling their studies alongside caring responsibilities that are now more demanding, or concerned about the availability of part-time work around their course as parts of the economy struggle to recover. As such, our welcome will need to be our warmest yet!

In place of the familiar in-person programme of events and spontaneous conversations, our digital or blended welcome will need to connect in new, exciting ways to help our students get off to the best start possible. The impressive work across academic departments and professional services to transform Welcome provides a solid platform for students to build meaningful, lasting relationships with each other and with staff, which we know are so important to their sense of belonging and identity in our community.

Getting off to the best start possible and building meaningful relationships early on will help our students to navigate the months ahead together with us. We know the face-to-face teaching that has been carefully planned will add real value to the learning experience where it is feasible. However, as a community of staff and students, we have to be prepared to respond quickly to the changing conditions brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. As positive cases rise and Government seeks to mitigate the impact of the pandemic through the winter, we must be ready to rapidly adapt elements of our on-campus teaching this year to move online. Whether the impact is on a single seminar group where our Test and Trace service reports a positive case or on the whole community through local or national restrictions, we must be fully prepared for teaching, learning, assessment and co-curricular activity to move online at very short notice.

We will continue to provide the right support for you and your teams to do this. Through the Learning Design Consultancy Unit, you can draw upon expertise and practical support in the design and delivery of online teaching, learning and assessment. The Student Opportunity and Wellbeing Support Services teams are on-hand to work with you on adapting your wider offer to students, be that within or alongside the curriculum. The teams in Education Policy and Quality, Student Administrative Services and the SPI Programme will remain as focused on simplifying and streamlining our underpinning systems for student administration and assessment so that staff working with students can focus their time where it matters most.

The term ahead will again be a demanding one, but with all that we have achieved in recent months, we are confident that we will end it just as proud of how far we have come.

With best wishes for the new year on behalf of the Education Executive team,

Chris

Professor Chris Hughes
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education)

Professor Chris Hughes, (Pro-Vice-Chancellor - Education)