Dear students,
Following on from my email yesterday, I am writing again, first and foremost, to welcome you to the start of the academic year 2020. After a busy and challenging summer, we are looking forward to our campus coming to life for the new academic year. For some of you, the semester starts normally, but as we are all aware, some of you are unable to join us in person due to international travel restrictions. We have been thinking of you and have plans in place so that you can participate in courses with your on-campus peers. We are very grateful for your patience and feedback as we work through these matters in response to fast-changing local and global events.
Update on travel to Australia from mainland China - travel ban extended by a week
Yesterday, the Australian Government extended travel restrictions by a week (until 22 February). The Australian Government will provide an update next week about the travel restrictions and we will keep you updated on what this means for our community.
Students not impacted by the travel restrictions
We will begin Semester 1 on 24 February as planned. Our campus is safe and ready for the start of the academic year. If you are a domestic or international student who is in Australia and able to attend classes, Orientation Week starts next Monday, 17 February, and Semester 1 on Monday 24 February. Classes are open for enrolment via ISIS.
If you are here, you need to enrol in Semester 1 classes by 2 March. We're looking forward to seeing you at our Commencement ceremony and free BBQ on Monday 17 February. If you haven't registered already, make sure you sign up.
Students impacted by the travel restrictions
We know that you are excited to start your degree at ANU, and we will miss welcoming you on campus as usual. Until you can come here in person, we have more than 600 courses available for your remote participation. You can view the full list of courses here.
***Information about how to enrol in these courses can be found here***
Our teachers and lecturers have worked hard to ensure classes are accessible while you are studying remotely. As you may be aware, access to websites and online platforms can change. Our Information Technology team and colleges are dedicated to helping with changes that may arise so we can find a solution for you with as little disruption to your study as possible.
We know some of you will have questions about studying remotely, so we have prepared a FAQ webpage to help answer your questions, which you can find here. I've also outlined some key information and dates below.
What is remote participation?
Remote participation for on-campus courses for students impacted by travel restrictions means you can study your course off-campus, and when the travel restrictions change, you will be able to come to campus and join your class during the semester.
When does Semester 1 start?
ANU will start Semester 1 on Monday 24 February. Everyone will start classes, either on-campus or by remote participation, from this week. Some tutorials will start in Week 2 (Monday 2 March).
What is the enrolment deadline for remote participation?
If you are joining by remote participation, we have extended the deadline to enrol in your courses to 10 March. Other key dates to note include:
- 31 March: The last date you can drop courses without financial and academic penalty. These courses will not appear on your transcript.
- 3 June: For students impacted by international travel restrictions, we have made a special exception so you can withdraw from Semester 1 courses as late as 3 June without academic or financial penalty. This means that course fees will be refunded. However, these courses will still be listed on your academic transcript with a "WD" (withdrawn without failure) grade.
Finally, just because you are off campus doesn't mean you have to miss out on Commencement and O-Week activities. We'll post the Commencement Address through our website and WeChat later in the day for everyone who can't be there in person. We have also developed an O-Week 2020 website for you. We'll be filming college orientation events and adding online sessions so you can hear about services from our library and Academic Skills Centre. This website will be available on Monday 17 February and we'll add the link to our WATTLE website.
We look forward to starting Semester 1 in a couple of weeks, and we just can't wait to welcome our students, whether face-to-face or online, to the ANU community.
Professor Grady Venville
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic)
*Sent Friday 14 February 4.45pm AEST
