A cautious, gradual and phased return to campus will be the responsible way forward for students and staff at Forth Valley College, according to Principal Dr Ken Thomson OBE, as Scotland emerges from lockdown restrictions.
Despite the latest announcement from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, heralding the imminent lifting of most of the restrictions, FVC will continue to operate within Scottish Government Guidance to take a sensible and steady approach to a return to pre-lockdown working practices.
In line with the College’s ongoing priority to ensure the health and wellbeing of students, staff and college visitors, Dr Thomson explained: “There is no great urgency to suddenly abandon what we have been doing over the past two sessions. Of course, we eventually want to return to some sort of normality, however we want to reassure everyone that it will be in an orderly, calm and responsible transition.
“We have already proved that we can help our students achieve despite the circumstances. Our online working practices have developed at an impressive rate throughout the last 18 months and have shown just how resilient, talented and professional our staff are.
“There have been lots of positives and we have been engaging with staff and students to consider how we use these to enhance our learner experience and working practices going forward. The next year is going to be significant for the College and we are well on our way to achieving our vision for 2030. There are some really exciting proposals in the pipeline – especially beyond the October break - and I look forward to seeing them rolled out.”
With Covid-19 still very much present in our society, it is hard to argue with the rationale behind the College’s cautious approach and this is backed up by impressive recent Scottish Government Performance Indicators. These showed that FVC was performing well against the College Sector in Academic Year 2019-20, compared to 2018-19 and in the main was following a similar pattern in trend to further education in Scotland, and in almost all of the categories, performing above the sector average.
Dr Thomson, went on: “As an organisation, we still have a duty of care to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our staff, students and visitors by managing any risk and taking necessary precautions, so there will be no major changes to our current approach from the beginning of term until the October break – where staff and students work as much as possible online and remotely from home. Priority on campus activities will be earmarked for students who need to catch up with course work, those who need to study practical elements of their courses and those who may need to come on campus for wellbeing reasons.
“There will also continue to be a range of measures in place across all campuses to ensure safety and wellbeing including regular lateral flow testing, Test and Protect measures, social distancing, face coverings in public areas and teaching spaces (unless exempt), enhanced hygiene measures and good ventilation throughout.
“We will continue to review the situation beyond this period and put the necessary plans in place. As everyone will appreciate this continues to be a fluid situation and we do realise that this may not be the start of term that students and staff were expecting and some may be disappointed – however, likewise there may be those who were feeling anxious about a return. We really feel that a cautious, gradual approach will be the most beneficial approach in the long-term for everyone.”
Anne-Marie Harley, Branch Convenor of the Lecturers Union EIS/FELA Forth Valley Branch, said: “While the health and safety of employees and students is a management responsibility, EIS/FELA Forth Valley has a role in representing members to ensure that management fulfils its duty. The management at FVC have consulted with the union, as per the National Guidance to ensure the best mitigations are put in place to protect staff and students.
“We welcome the cautious approach the management have taken. At the start of this term and beyond, institutions are strongly recommended to implement a greater level of protective measures that go further than the minimum baseline, such as physical distancing and so on. The profile of vaccination across the population needs to be taken into account.
“We therefore believe that the approach being taken maximises suppression of the virus while allowing us to cautiously get back to a more settled term with our students.”