Dear students of English at UZH

The extraordinary situation induced by the Corona virus has kept us all on our toes, and we have been in contact with many of you, in class and throughout the English Department.

The extraordinary situation surrounding the spread of coronavirus presents us all with exceptional challenges. It is our goal to enable students to complete the semester as normal. However, we also have a responsibility to help contain the spread of the virus and protect the UZH community.

We have been closely monitoring the latest developments for several weeks now. Given the current situation, for health policy reasons it is no longer justifiable to continue holding classroom teaching sessions at UZH. After consultation with the cantonal authorities, the Executive Board of the University has thus decided to switch all courses to a distance-learning format from Monday, 16 March 2020 onwards. It has now become clear that classes will not resume this semester.

This is unprecedented, but I would like to assure you that the English Department has anticipated such a situation. Over the last two weeks, we have made arrangements to ensure that our courses continue as smoothly as possible under the circumstances.
As a result of this change of policy, we have adopted digital teaching methods. The instructors have informed the participants of their courses as to how their classes are organized.

I would like to remind all students to please regularly check their UZH email addresses and OLAT course folders (particularly the Forum). We are working very hard to ensure that our teaching programme continues as smoothly as is possible under the circumstances, and it is our main prerogative that there will be no disadvantage for our students. We are confident that we can achieve this aim, but please bear with us should there be any technical glitches or uncertainties on the way.

We all hope the situation eases soon, but rest assured that we will find creative solutions to cope with it. We are here for you.

On behalf of the entire ES Staff, I wish you all the best for the coming weeks and months.

Daniel Schreier
(Head of Dept.)