From: Professor Alex Neill, Vice-President Education
Dear Colleagues
We have already announced that we are looking forward to welcoming our undergraduate students to our UK campuses on 28 September 2020.
Our postgraduate taught (PGT) courses have different characteristics and so we have undertaken a market analysis, that included a survey of all our international offer-holders, to decide the academic year start date that will continue to attract our students. The research indicated very clearly their concerns and preferences regarding the delivery and commencement of their course, and this has helped inform our approach.
Working with the Associate Deans Education and a team of colleagues involved in planning our educational delivery for 2020, I have consulted with each of the faculties. It is clear that there is no single answer for all courses, nor can we have infinite variations, we have therefore agreed on four categories into which all PGT courses will fit for the new academic year 2020:
- Category 1: Course starts in September and January
- Category 2: Course starts in September
- Category 3: Course starts in January
- Category 4: Course is suspended for 2020-21
Which category a course has been allocated to was decided at Faculty level and approved by UEB on Monday 1 June. Programme Leaders, Admissions Tutors and Admissions Teams will today be made aware of the categories that their courses are in and we will be updating course information online to reflect this.
I’m pleased to report that about 75% of our courses are in category 2 and we will be welcoming those students to our campuses to start their courses on 28 September with as much face to face teaching as possible, supported with a blend of online learning.
Offer-holders for courses in category 1 will be asked to choose between a September and a January start. They will send their responses directly to Admissions who will then transfer January starters to a new course code.
Offer-holders for courses in category 3 will be informed that their start date will be moved to January, with the end date of December 2021.
For those courses where the decision has been made to suspend for 2020 entry, we will inform the offer-holders and direct them toward alternative courses they may wish to be considered for or explain how they may defer to a 2021 entry.
It is important that communications with our prospective students and offer-holders are managed centrally by the Admissions and Communications teams to help us ensure we comply with CMA legislation and provide as much clarity as possible. This will commence on Thursday 11 June.
Although this is somewhat complex, we are confident that responding to the market in this way will put us in a stronger position to bring students to Southampton and provide a safe and exceptional student experience.
I’m extremely grateful to all the colleagues who have worked with great flexibility, speed and imagination to bring us to this stage and greatly appreciate the work still to come in developing and delivering our courses in the innovative ways needed to reflect our new environment.
If you have any queries, in the first instance please contact your Associate Dean Education.
Best wishes
Alex
