Corona, UCR & You

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.

With this model, some of our lectures are delivered in a classroom with a limited number of students in attendance.  And some classes are delivered online when class size prevents in-class teaching in a safe and responsible way.

This also means that courses which involve some kind of lab work, are limited to 8 students.  All other courses take a flexible approach. In some courses, the instructor may teach the whole class online, with students logging in remotely via Zoom. In other cases the instructor may split the class into smaller groups, allowing both groups to meet in-class but at different times. Or some courses may be online and in-person at the same time, with some students attending in-person and others via Zoom.

The flexibility of our approach to teaching ensures that if a student cannot make it to class (think of travel restrictions or self-quarantine) they may still be able to participate online. If an instructor cannot make it to class (think of instructors in high-risk groups) they are still able to teach the class online. And if no one can make it to class (think of a spike in new Coronavirus cases) the whole class can quickly and easily move online.

This model holds the potential of maximizing the opportunity to participate in a face-to-face learning experience under conditions of social distancing whenever possible. And at the same time, it enables students who cannot attend class in-person to participate and learn safely, online. These sessions are not meant to be passive observations of a class video stream, but rather to have fully interactive engagements, including Q&A, group work (if possible), and student presentations.

We have two dedicated, detailed information pages; for students and for employees.

UCR looks at your application as a whole, including motivation, curiosity, passion for learning and an international outlook. While there are some minimum requirements we legally need to adhere to, we will be as understanding of the current situation as possible.

Getting to know you during the interview is one of the integral parts of the UCR Admissions Process. As such we will indeed continue to have interviews as part of the process. They will, however, all be conducted online.

In the Netherlands, tuition fees are largely set by the government. A move to lower tuition fees has not been made at the national level and as such tuition fees for UCR will not be lowered.

Housing remains available (and compulsory) to all UCR students and is managed by Villex. Villex has provided additional measures and guidelines to ensure all students can live on campus safely. Special arrangements can be made for students who are not able to travel to campus due to travel restrictions or medical reasons.

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