The announcement and some further details can be found here.

The extension of current restrictions means that the university will continue to operate as it is at the present time - we are open but the majority of our teaching is being delivered digitally. In-person teaching and placements that were allowed to restart in January by the Government remain unaffected by this announcement, for example, courses in Medicine, Veterinary Science and Education.

The Government advises students on all other courses to remain where they are and continue their studies online but recognises that there may be exceptional circumstances which mean students need to return to campus - for example because they do not have alternative accommodation, for health reasons, or because they are unable to sit online exams elsewhere.

That this will be disappointing news for many of you, but the university will continue to support our student community now as well as planning ahead for the rest of this academic year.

To date, more than £23 million has been spent supporting students by ensuring that more than 260 buildings are Covid-secure, establishing our own Covid testing service where more than 20,000 tests have been conducted and delivering blended learning online and in-person. These costs also include increased provision for student mental health, wellbeing and financial hardship, providing additional spaces for students to study and socialise and crediting students’ university accommodation accounts where they are unable to use their hall rooms while studying from home.

We continue to challenge the government, directly and through our role in the Russell Group and on the board of Universities UK, to provide greater support for students, alongside a roadmap for how we can resume more in-person teaching in the coming weeks and months, as restrictions allow, to help inform the contingency planning we already have in place.

Covid-19 testing

We continue to offer asymptomatic testing through our own in-house service for all students in Nottingham and we recommend testing at least once a week. These tests are highly accurate and can tell if people are in the early stages of infection - please do use this service regularly.

For our students living out in the community we have set up a new Covid-19 testing hub at Thomas Helwys Church Hall, in Church Street, Lenton, NG7 1SJ.

This additional resource is based on a concept we have trialled successfully in Derby, and it provides greater opportunities for students to take regular Covid-19 tests. The hub will open on Monday 1 February, and has been developed with the support of local Public Health and Nottingham City Council colleagues.

Students can book appointments for this and on-campus testing from now at on the Test to Protect webpages.

Supporting the vaccine roll-out

Students registered at our Cripps Health Centre, on University Park, may be aware that this is the only GP practice in the county also operating as a vaccination centre.

Cripps is following national guidelines in vaccinating locally registered patients in the appropriate older age and vulnerable group categories, as well as frontline health and social care workers who may be registered elsewhere. Over the last fortnight, staff have administered more than 3,500 vaccines alongside 5,000 routine appointments.

The university also continues to host two walk-through NHS testing sites on campus for those experiencing Coronavirus symptoms and has also made space available at our Kings Meadow Campus which is now operational as a regional Covid-19 vaccine centre.

We are also extremely proud of our own Professor Jonathan Van Tam, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, supporting the fight against the virus at a national level. You may have seen him in Nottingham recently administering vaccines to vulnerable people in the city.

University Accommodation

We are writing to those who hold contracts for accommodation that the university owns/leases and manages, to advise that we have extended the support package which applies to students with accommodation contracts for University halls, Dagfa, Varsity, and UPP (Broadgate Park, Albion House & Cloister House).

We are pleased to confirm that if you are not studying on a programme that currently allows you to return for in-person teaching AND you are not using your room, you will not be required to pay accommodation fees for the period from the start of term (Sunday 10 January) up to and including either the date you start to occupy your room or Sunday 7 March, whichever is earlier.

If you are studying on a programme that allows you to return early for in-person teaching, you will remain liable to pay full accommodation fees, regardless of whether or not you occupy the room, or if you have chosen to occupy your accommodation for any reason prior to Sunday 7 March, accommodation fees will be due from and including the date on which you commence occupation of your room.

We are actively liaising with private and third party accommodation providers to see if they are able to support students in a similar manner, and welcome the support that Unite Students, Student Roost and Kaplan Living were able to offer for accommodation costs in January/February.

The university may be able to offer interest free loans or non-repayable grants to students experiencing financial difficulties resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. For further information, please visit Support Funds or email financialsupport@nottingham.ac.uk.

Ensuring fair assessment

Since communicating our package of measures to ensure fair assessment for students earlier this month, we have continued to explore what else we can do to reassure students that their assessment will be fair.

All modules, teaching and assessments were modified for the start of the academic year to ensure your studies could be fully completed and fairly assessed through digital platforms if it turns out to be necessary. We also introduced a new extenuating circumstances policy to account for the impact of Covid-19 on your studies, where any requirements for evidence are kept to a minimum, so that we can offer you the personalised support that you need.

Next week, we will update you on some further measures for the post-assessment period and how we will ensure that assessment results in 2020/21 are comparable to those of previous years.

Additional measures

Within our university the number of active cases of Covid-19 remains low. Our measures are most effective when we work together. We encourage you to support our #OneThing campaign which sees staff and students explain why we all need to follow the rules to protect ourselves and others from Covid-19.

As a university we are determined to support all students and continue to adapt our approach to anticipate whatever circumstances present themselves next in this fast-moving and difficult situation.

We will share further details as they become available. In the meantime, please stay safe and do not hesitate to contact your tutor, your School or our support services for any help you may need.