We’re sure many of you will be feeling some anxiety about travelling and coming to university this year, but we’re following the advice from Universities UK, Public Health England and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to make sure our campus is a safe and happy environment for you to start your studies.
In this article you’ll find our campus guidelines and advice on how to keep yourself and others safe. It’s important for everyone to follow these guidelines to keep themselves and others safe. We have faith that all members of our University community will do the right thing. You can politely remind people of the guidelines if they aren’t following them. If you still have concerns, you can report these to our COVID-19 team.
Significant breaches of COVID-19 guidelines may be subject to University disciplinary action.
Travel
Walk or cycle
Walk or cycle to campus if you can – from fallowfield it’s about a 35 minute walk to campus and we’d recommend either walking or cycling at least during busy mornings and afternoons. Support and training is available if you want to start cycling, from both our University and Transport for Greater Manchester.
Plan your journey
If you need to take public transport, wear a face covering and try to maintain social distancing. Within Manchester, the Stagecoach/Magic Bus app can help you plan your journey via bus. It shows you the live location of buses, as well as how busy they are, so you can plan your travel safely.
On campus
Wear a face covering indoors
You must wear a face covering at all times when you’re indoors on campus – that includes in our teaching spaces and libraries – unless you are exempt for medical reasons. You will each be provided with two, washable face coverings in your Welcome Pack, and more guidance on face coverings can be found on here.
Keep your distance
We ask that all students be aware of others and maintain a 2 metre distance where possible – that’s about the length of a double bed. In spaces where a 2 metre distance can’t be maintained, try to keep as much of a distance as possible and make sure you’re wearing your face covering too.
Wash hands or sanitise
To keep good hygiene, make sure to wash your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and water or use a hand sanitiser station when you enter a university building. COVID-19 can only enter through your eyes, nose or mouth, and washing your hands frequently can help prevent the virus being transferred from a surface you’ve touched.
Book onto your welcome events
Once events are live and ready to book onto for Welcome, make sure you complete the online booking as we need to use this to feed into the NHS track and trace system. Try not to turn up at events without booking as you cannot be guaranteed a place.
Entry/exits and one ways systems
When arriving at a building on campus, please follow all signage which will tell you where to enter, routes through the building and designated exits. There will also be signage in toilets, kitchens and teaching spaces so keep your eye out around campus.
Teaching
Arrive and leave on time
There will be a 15 minute timetabling gap for our teaching spaces, to allow you to arrive and leave safely. Please only arrive for your class five minutes before the start time, to allow the previous class to leave. Leaving and arriving on time will also allow us to carry out more frequent cleaning of our rooms and buildings.
Lifts run at reduced capacity
When heading to an upper floor of a building, try to use stairs where possible as our lifts will be running at a reduced capacity to maintain social distancing. Give priority to those who may need to use the lifts over you.
Book study spaces in advance and clean shared equipment
Study spaces are available but must be booked in advance which can be done on the Library site. Please read the Library’s health and safety guidance before you arrive to make sure you’re following guidelines. We also ask that you sanitise any shared equipment using the wipes provided both before and after use.
Accommodation
Quarantine arrival
If you’ve been asked to quarantine on your arrival to Manchester, is it extremely important that you stay in your designated areas and follow the quarantine guidelines until your 14 days are completed. This includes rearranging appointments e.g. bank appointments. For more information on a Quarantine arrival, click here.
Living in halls
Specific guidelines have been developed for University Halls, to protect residents and staff. If you live in a University Hall of Residence you must familiarise yourself with the guidance.
Living in shared houses or at home
If you’re living in shared private accommodation or living at home and you start to show symptoms or get a positive test, please make sure to self-isolate immediately and get in touch with your school.
Yourself and your household will need to self-isolate, which means you stay in your house for the full 14 days. If other members of your household do not have symptoms they still need to self-isolate, but if possible try to keep as much distance as possible and regularly disinfect any shared spaces to reduce the risk of the virus spreading.
Community
Keeping others safe
Remember that when you’re off campus, whether you live in private accommodation or in Halls, you’re still a representative for our University. The local area is a mixture of a diverse range of people, some of whom may be particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.
It’s vital that we each make a commitment to protect the health and safety of the wider community. This means that you need to take direct and deliberate actions to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Find out more about how to be a good neighbour and protect the local community.
Follow local guidelines
You should follow UK government guidance at all times, including restrictions currently in place in Greater Manchester on socialising. Remember, at present you must not socialise with anyone outside of your own household, and you must not travel to and from other addresses or your home address until it is safe to do so. Breaches of COVID-19 guidelines may be subject to University disciplinary action and significant fines to those who break the rules.
What to do if you, or someone you live with, has COVID-19 symptoms
Please self-isolate and follow the instructions on our Student Safety webpage if you, someone you live or someone in your support bubble has any of the following:
- has any COVID-19 symptoms (a high temperature, new, continuous cough or a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste);
- have tested positive for COVID-19 (this means you have coronavirus);
- has been told by NHS Test and Trace that you’ve been in contact with a person with COVID-19.