The UCD College of Business, including the UCD Smurfit School, has agreed details of how teaching, learning and assessment will be conducted for the coming Autumn Trimester, in line with university and public health guidance.

Details of Orientation have been shared with students via our information portal for incoming students and commence from Monday 7th September 2020 for our MBA, MSc Finance, MSc Quantitative Finance, MSc Renewable Energy Environmental Finance, MAcc and MSc International Management programmes and from Monday 14th September for all other programmes. Students are encouraged to arrive on campus for their Orientation programme. If you have any questions in relation to orientation, please contact your Programme Manager directly.

Teaching for the Autumn Trimester will have two start dates, from Monday 14th September 2020 for students on our MSc Finance, MSc Quantitative Finance, MSc Renewable Energy Environmental Finance, MAcc, MBA, MSc International Management and MSc Management programmes and from Monday 21st September 2020 for all other programmes.

We aim to give you the best possible campus and blended learning experience, and the UCD Smurfit School considers face-to-face interaction between students, and between students and faculty, as integral elements of your learning journey. While the national response to COVID-19 presents challenges in maintaining this experience, we seek to ensure that our students can access and use our beautiful campus to the greatest extent possible.

We understand that UCD Smurfit School students value the opportunity to learn in a campus setting, and we also recognise that some forms of teaching lend themselves to distance learning more than others. Therefore, the UCD Smurfit School has decided to use a blend of face-face and online learning options to optimise your experience whilst maintaining a safe learning environment.

The UCD Smurfit School has adopted the following general teaching and assessment principles for the Autumn Trimester:

• For the majority of modules, lectures will be delivered face to face with the number of students in the classroom determined by public health restrictions. Recorded lectures will be made available through Brightspace (UCD’s Virtual Learning Environment).
  Due to the constraints on the use of space due to COVID-19, a number of modules will be delivered online only - synchronously using scheduled timeslots and asynchronously, through pre-recordings.
• Where modules require tutorials, these will be delivered through a mix of face-to face and online synchronously and asynchronously (again due to the constraints of social distancing).
• Your module coordinator will confirm the assessment strategies for your module at the start of the trimester including continuous and final assessments. There will be a mix of continuous assessment and coursework including assignments, presentations and MCQs. End of Trimester assessment will be in an open book online format.
• Academic staff will run office hours online and / or in person.

As you are aware, the situation is evolving and we will keep you informed as we draw closer to September and the start of the new academic year. We look forward to welcoming our new students and our returning students to the UCD Smurfit School. Based on our current planning and depending on the number of students in any module, students can expect to have in face to face time in the classroom of between 50-75%.

Detailed information on the delivery of our programmes will be shared with students separately by mid- August 2020. The information provided will be specific to the programme and will reflect current planning. We recognise that the response to COVID-19 is constantly evolving and our plans must be adaptable to this changing environment. Should restrictions be imposed or removed, the delivery of modules and their assessment may have to change at short notice.

Further information:

• All modules within the University have undergone a review of how best they can be delivered according to the social distance restrictions that are likely to apply.
• This timetabling information will result in module and programme specific information being available by mid-August 2020
• You will receive further information on the registration process and your detailed timetable by Friday 28 August 2020.

We understand that students are making decisions around accommodation. We cannot at this point give you specific time-table information for the Autumn Trimester, and we note that even when we are in a position to show you that level of detail, we may still have to amend the proportion of online learning if the prevailing public health guidelines change associated with the pandemic.

For general information on Covid-19 special arrangements visit the UCD website: https://www.ucd.ie/covid-19/