First-hand experience: how to live and study in the new academic year

The new academic year is coming, and applicants, students and teachers still have doubts how it will begin. Who will have the access to the campus, and who will have to study remotely? Will be face-to-face classes accessible for those who have recently been ill with COVID-19 or have a medical withdrawal from vaccination? The general rules for universities have not yet been established, but much is already clear today.

Our questions are answered by the Rector of the Russian New University (RosNOU) Vladimir Zernov.

— Of course! I was vaccinated back in April of this year.

—  We fulfill and even exceed the state requirement for organizations to have 60% of employees vaccinated: at the moment, 80% of RosNOU employees and teachers have been vaccinated. Unfortunately, the situation is different for students: about a third of second-year students and older have been vaccinated. As for the first-year students, many of them are under 18 years old, and by law we cannot ask them to be vaccinated. Therefore, we will allow them to attend full-time classes.

— Students who have recently recovered from the COVID-19 or have medical contraindications to vaccination will also be able to attend classes on campus.

— There is no complete clarity. If a person has been exposed to the virus recently, then a delay from vaccination is provided. Previously, its term was six months. Now, following the recommendations of health organizations, it is three months. They strongly recommend that everyone should be vaccinated at least with the Sputnik Light COVID-19 vaccine – even those who have been ill. It is almost impossible to defeat the pandemic without vaccination.

— There is a problem. On August 17, 2021, a meeting of the Russian Union of Rectors was held, which lasted three and a half hours. A solution was not found. There is a general recommendation: to consider each case individually. Let's hope that these people don't get sick. COVID-19 is a serious disease; we observe many negative consequences both in elderly people and in young people.

— This is a common problem for the country. We try to convince such people to get vaccinated. There were quite a lot of them in our university, now there are less than a dozen. Life itself makes adjustments, an increasing number of employees and teachers who categorically opposed vaccination are being vaccinated.

We continue to conduct explanatory work on all the resources of the university about the need for vaccination. There is no alternative to it today.

— We are working on this right now. Perhaps we will check students by vaccination QR codes. At the moment, there is no absolute solution, we are considering several options.

— It will be done in a hybrid format. Students will be able to attend lectures on campus or connect via the Internet. The safety of students during face-to-face classes is ensured by keeping social distancing. We hope that restrictive measures will not allow the pandemic to spread widely.

— It will be done almost for all of them. RosNOU Informatization Services are making every effort to ensure this access.