Corona, UCR & You

UCR is currently offering our students, and has been since the beginning of the pandemic, a flexible teaching program consisting of some in-person as well as online teaching.

Community is the heart and soul of UCR. Our small, tight-knit student community lives on campus, socializes, and learns here. Our faculty and staff enjoy the frequent in-person interactions they have with students and with each other. We want our community to have in-person touchpoints. However, the safety and well-being of our students, faculty, and staff is of course our top priority.

For these reasons, UCR has adopted a flexible teaching model.

A flexible model provides for both online and limited (especially where necessary) face-to-face classes. In practice, this means that on-campus students may attend classes both online, as well as in-person where and whenever possible. Students who have not been able to come to campus would still be able to attend classes remotely using Zoom (there are exceptions, such as lab courses).

This flexibility is particularly useful when the effects of the pandemic are forcing us to make decisions about how many students can fit into a classroom on campus. The model also enables it to function for students who may not be able to come to campus at the moment, which might be the case for some of our international students.

On the 28^th of May, the government in the Netherlands announced that the number of people being admitted to hospital with COVID-19 is falling rapidly. And that more and more people are being vaccinated. The government has therefore decided to bring forward step 3 of their reopening plan by a couple of days. From Saturday 5 June, most locations in the Netherlands will be open, subject to certain conditions. These measures are an indication that life is slowly back to some sense of normality.

These developments have been made possible by the truly impressive efforts of millions of people, the UCR community being amongst them, to accept serious restrictions to their liberty for an extended period of time.

At UCR, we would like to facilitate as much in-person and on-campus education as possible. We also want to create a safe space for our students (current and incoming) and employees to socially integrate which is of great importance to our small university college and close-knit community. At the same time, we want to be agile if or when setbacks occur, for example with regard to vaccination coverage or new mutations of the virus. And we continue to take our responsibility for public health very seriously, to minimize the risks of outbreaks of the virus.

With all this in mind, as of Monday, 30 August 2021, UCR plans to reopen with all teaching taking place on campus.

The COVID-19 crisis is not over yet. People are still catching the disease and being admitted to hospital. At the same time, more and more people are being vaccinated and the country is slowly opening up, allowing us to slowly ease back into more normal life. The RIVM provides updated information daily. For the most recent information on the Coronavirus situation in Middelburg and the Netherlands, please consult their website.

UCR is a residential college, so everyone is expected on campus from Monday, 30 August 2021. If you will be coming from abroad, please bear in mind all entry rules and that you may have to quarantine upon arrival. If this applies to your situation, you should arrive earlier than this date.

All teaching is expected to take place in-person and on-campus. If the situation in the Netherlands changes for the worse, UCR is prepared to once again offer a flexible form of teaching in which some teaching will be offered online.

National guidelines pertaining to the pandemic will continue to apply. For instance, if the government requires everyone to wear facemasks in communal areas, this will also be the case at UCR.

Travelling to the Netherlands as a student with a valid visa will be possible in almost all cases. In some rare cases, there may be an exception. Whether you can travel to the Netherlands and which rules apply before and after you arrive may vary from person to person depending your personal circumstances. Therefore, please consult this website.  Most importantly, you should refer to the Entry Checklist.

Being vaccinated will protect not only you, but also your family, friends and vulnerable people in your surroundings. Once the majority of people are immune to coronavirus, there won’t have to be so many coronavirus restrictions.

Although strongly encouraged, being vaccinated against COVID-19 is not a requirement either by Dutch law or at UCR. You can read more about the Dutch vaccination programme here.

UCR will offer an in-person orientation period. Online orientation components will be available to students who are unable to travel to UCR or who cannot take part for health reasons. Much of orientation will take place outdoors at UCR and in the city of Middelburg. Group sizes will be capped at maximum 100 people, which means that some sessions will take place in smaller groups (of 20 people).

If national rules still require facemasks and 1.5 meters social distancing at the time of orientation, we will adhere to that. More detailed information relating to orientation, the activities and the schedule will be communicated with incoming students via email.

Please get in touch with the Enrolment Office via enrolment@ucr.nl as soon as possible.

If you have a question that is not answered in the above, please reach out to us via email admissions@ucr.nl.