Dear Partner,
during the last few months, all of us have lived in an unprecedented period which has changed our daily lives.
Our work has been heavily affected, too, such as the entire system of outgoing and incoming international exchange students mobility.
We are now contacting you to provide some updated information about next academic year's situation of incoming and outgoing students mobility at the University of Pavia.
TEACHING ACTIVITIES
Our Rector reaffirms with conviction, the desire to resume face-to-face classes in the next academic year, as soon as the conditions of health security will allow it.
However in Italy, as in other European countries, even after a complete lockdown, the uncertainty about the trend of the epidemic leads us to provide the classes also online with the purpose of being inclusive towards all students, especially if coming from another region, with any difficulty in travelling and of being ready to address further restriction due to any sudden change of the epidemic situation.
Therefore, the lessons of the next academic year will be delivered in a mixed form: both online and in presence (blended teaching in small classes and blended teaching in rotation).
We are still waiting for specific guidelines from our national government on this issue, we will send you updated information as soon as possible, hopefully by the end of June.
SEMESTER CHOICE
We have had a number of enquiries about changing exchange stays from the autumn to the spring semester. We confirm that we will be ready to switch the mobility periods to the spring 2021 semester.
However, it is important for both students and partners to be aware of the following points:
1. The courses offered in the spring semester are typically different to those offered in autumn.
2. It would be more difficult to find housing, so please be informed that this will lead to some challenges
3. there may be some specific issues to find enough study places for all incoming participants, if a relevant number decides to switch to the second semester, in particular for Medicine Student (namely as wards in the hospital are concerned)
In any case, we will do our best to guarantee a solution.
We would be grateful if you would share this information with your students.
DEADLINES
We will maintain our nomination deadlines (15th of June for first semester/ full year and 30th November for second semester) but, due to the current circumstances, we remain flexible and we will be able to accept late nominations.
We would like to thank you all for your support and understanding and reaffirm our commitment to our exchange partnerships.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Dear Colleagues,
We are facing a difficult situation for our academic life. In Italy, all the University activities have been strongly restricted by the Government Decrees of March 8th and 10th 2020. We absolutely agree and comply to all the national and regional restrictive measures, firmly believing that social containment is the most effective obstacle to the virus spreading.
Since the very beginning of this crisis, the University of Pavia has opened a dedicated web page on its website where news and updates are constantly uploaded in real time (see https://web.unipv.it/
Face-to-face lessons have been suspended, but we activated online courses that will guarantee to all our national and international students the possibility to complete timely their study. Merit exams and graduation sessions are and will be performed on line as well.
Unfortunately all the research activities in the laboratories and libraries are interrupted until April 3rd. We will closely monitor the situation and resume our Academic activity as soon as possible and anyway, when allowed by the authorities.
Concerning international mobility, unfortunately we will not be able to accept incoming students at least till April 3rd and we will make sure to reschedule their incoming and academic activity based on the evolution of the situation. They will anyway be able to follow the online courses provided by our Academia.
Of course, we will monitor closely the situation that is really an ongoing process at the moment.
We advised all our students abroad to follow the recommendation of host institutions, taking into account the specific Country where they are; we advise the students who are in Countries where the number of infections is rapidly growing to come back to Italy, considering the national and regional restriction dispositions.
We take in much account your Partnership in our Mobility Program, we are hoping that this emergency will be solved soon and we are faithful that it will not compromise the mutual respect and future collaboration.
Do not hesitate to ask further information to our Office by writing to incoming.erasmus@unipv.it (Erasmus+ European partners) or to relint@unipv.it (for all other partners).
Yours sincerely,
Antonella Forlino
Vicerector for International Relations
University of Pavia - Italy