All students and staff who are on campus are expected to take Covid-19 tests at least weekly via our in-house Asymptomatic Testing Service.

The benefits of regular testing include keeping everyone safe, providing reassurance, ensuring our campuses can be kept open, helping to control new strains and variants, and ensuring pre- and post- infection support. Individual student rewards are also available for those who take part.

We expect participation in testing to be high and are set to take part in a government-supported pilot to test how this might be improved.

Students in Cripps and Lincoln halls of residence have agreed to take part in the pilot, aiming to achieve 90% participation in twice-weekly testing via the university’s in-house Asymptomatic Testing Service, which is incentivised by allowing greater social interaction and mixing within the hall. This will give a clear indication of the prevalence of Covid-19 within halls, with any positive cases quickly identified and isolated.

The Testing Participation Pilot has been given approval by Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Local Public Health and is supported by government. It will begin on Thursday 6 May for an initial four weeks.

Within the pilot halls, students will be allowed to mix with all residents, while still wearing face coverings and adhering to two-metre social distancing in communal spaces and when interacting with staff.

The focus of this pilot is on more ‘traditional’ halls of residence such as Cripps and Lincoln. These halls have large corridors, shared facilities, communal dining and socialising models which makes a ‘household’ an arbitrary concept.

All other students and staff continue to be encouraged to take part in asymptomatic Covid-19 testing at least weekly.

If the pilot is successful and we have support from government, we will look to extend and expand the scheme across the wider university. Halls that wish to be considered for next stages should look at increasing testing participation to at least 75%.

It is hoped that the pilot will help to increase safety on campus and provide insights that will inform better policy and best practice as to how to increase testing participation in university settings.

To find out more about the pilot, including FAQs for students and staff, visit our Testing Participation Pilot webpage.