Dear Staff and Students,

Welcome back to a new academic year. I hope you have had a restful break, especially after the extraordinary challenges we faced and overcame last year.

Please find below the University’s learning and teaching plan for semester 1- 2022:

1. Semester 1-2022 will commence on 21 March 2022. The late start accommodates the late release of Fiji Year 13 grades and avoids the administrative and teaching challenges of staggered start dates for different groups of students.
2. The University will operate with 13-week teaching semesters in 2022.
3. The University will deliver semester-1 courses as outlined in the 2022 Handbook and Calendar; this includes the normal delivery of face-to-face (F2F) courses.
4. F2F teaching and learning activities will observe government-COVID-19 protocols (e.g. maximum 80% capacity).
5. Regional students who are unable to travel to Laucala, Emalus, and Samoa Campuses for F2F learning can do the following:
   • If the F2F course has a calendared Online, Blended or Print alternative, affected students will register in these instead;
   • If the F2F course has no calendared Online, Blended or Print alternative, they will register under F-mode at their home campus, for Remote delivery;
   • By ‘Remote’, we mean a course that is normally offered only in Face-to-face mode, which has been adapted for remote delivery as a temporary measure during a time of crisis (such as the closure of campuses or borders due to COVID-19). This mode replicates the learning experience that students would expect from F2F mode, usually using recorded lecturers and Zoom tutorials.
6. Programmes that have opted not to offer particular F2F courses remotely, due to the nature of the courses (e.g. lab-based courses) have committed to the following to support students who cannot travel to Laucala, Emalus and Samoa Campuses:
   • The Academic Unit will run the courses remotely, suspending all essential F2F activities (e.g. labs) until the Mid-Semester Break (MSB) or end of the semester. Staff will travel to the campuses or arrange for local tutors to run the F2F components intensively;
   • Reroute students from the closed courses into remote-ready alternatives. If necessary these could be from the next level, with prerequisites waived.

If you are a student affected by the non-delivery of these core courses, please contact your Head of Academic Unit to confirm which of these alternatives they will be providing for you.

7. The University will administer F2F exams, and students will be informed of any change to assessment and teaching plans.

I wish all staff and students the best for the new academic year.

Sincerely,
Professor Jito Vanualailai