Dear student,

I hope this message finds you safe and well and that you managed to have a break from study and revision over the Easter weekend. I appreciate that this continues to be a difficult time for so many in our community and my thoughts are with all those who are worried about their health or that of family and friends.

As you may have heard from the UK Government late yesterday, the instruction to all but essential workers is to continue to stay at home for the next three weeks.

For those of you who remain here in Bath, I’m sure you would like to join me as I pay tribute to our own essential workers in Ahs, Estates and others for continuing their work here with such dedication. For example, we have now provided over 16,990 free meals from the Lime Tree to support those of you on campus and I know from many that this has been warmly received.

Our teams on campus have also worked hard to ensure students can access essential services like the shop and computers in the Library foyer whilst maintaining social distancing. Thank you to all those following Government advice on staying at home and observing social distancing measures; this is still very important given the significant risk posed by COVID-19 to all age groups.

Wherever you are based, I know how hardworking and ambitious Bath students are and I’m grateful for your continuing dedication to your studies. I’m told that we delivered more than 54,800 hours of online teaching content in one month alone, and appreciate that we are all adapting quickly to new ways of teaching and learning. Thank you for your flexibility and engagement.

Recognising that this time is creating additional hardships, please be aware that you can still access Student Services, including wellbeing, counselling and money advice, wherever you are living. You can find more information on our dedicated information pages. The National Health Service has also provided information about looking after your mental wellbeing whilst staying at home.

For students who are on campus and who need to stay beyond the end of the semester over the summer, you will be able to stay in University accommodation whilst paying your usual rate. Please confirm your plans in advance by contacting accommodation@bath.ac.uk.

We know that some of our students, including doctoral students, may be keen to understand the shape of the coming weeks for your research or studies. We continue to closely monitor UK Government and public health advice. For the medium-term, we are undertaking planning for different scenarios where we can begin to restart our operations. We do not wish to be premature in taking these steps, but there are significant operational implications to restarting our buildings, laboratories and other core services and we must be ready when the time comes.

Please continue to visit our dedicated web pages and follow our social media channels for updates.

In the meantime, please accept my best wishes.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Ian White Vice-Chancellor and President