The University of Otago will move a ‘‘portion’’ of its courses online after a three-week planning process in response to the threat posed by Covid-19.
The university decided against shutting up as there were no cases of the disease on campus and there had been no community spread in New Zealand.
Otago University Students’ Association president Jack Manning said the move would be a ‘‘positive step towards facilitating strong social distancing measures on campus’’ and would provide students with peace of mind around study plans.
‘‘University will still be open and all studies will continue,’’ he said.
The university yesterday announced first-year semester one health sciences papers would be the first to move online, starting on Monday.
Other 100-level papers would progressively move during the week.
Second year and above papers which had more than 100 enrolments would be prioritised to move online from the following week, along with selected other papers.
The introduction had been planned over the past three weeks.
It would position the university ‘‘to quickly move as close as possible to full online delivery if required’’, the university said in a statement.
Online classes would continue until the mid-semester break, and would then be reassessed based on how Covid-19 developed.
Residential colleges would stay open, but with measures in place such as ‘‘staggering’’ meal times.
University vice-chancellor Harlene Hayne said the university had been taking advice from the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education each day.
‘‘If the situation changes, we will advise students, staff and other stakeholders as quickly as possible.’’
The initial move online would affect 125 of the 850 on-campus papers delivered across the university’s Dunedin, Wellington, Christchurch and Invercargill campuses.
A further 300 papers would be provided online by the end of the following week.
