Our students and staff have demonstrated their commitments in protecting the community where they can. In the early stages of the 2020 lockdown the UNSW Medicine and Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering have collaborated with NSW Health and the University of Sydney on the Ventilator Innovation Project to locate and repurpose ventilators from non-hospital sources. Our own UNSW Health Service has been accepted as a COVID-19 vaccination centre, with over 1300 administered for COVID-19 vaccinations and over 1500 COVID-19 tests, while simultaneously operating as a normal practice servicing members of the community with a high standard of care. Below are some ways we have been supporting our students and community.
Our supportive community
Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion team worked tirelessly to enhance the UNSW’s Gateway Program with the newest addition inaugural Winter Program, a digital pathway program designed for Year 12 students who had a difficult year studying for their HSC while their schooling was disrupted by the pandemic. Similar program is held for Year 11 students, with the UNSW Gateway Spring Program, also delivered online.
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The UNSW community rolled out financial relief for students facing hardship. More than $5.4 million was given to over 10,000 students, and approximately $1.1 million has been raised by the UNSW Student Emergency Response Fund, a generous gift from the Gonski Foundation and the Staff Benevolent Fund have been established to support our students in need. The University has allocated further funding due to the extended lockdown in NSW and will continue to remain open to applications of support for students who qualify.
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Our Philanthropic team has been busy working with the community to raise COVID-19 Rapid Response Research Fund to ease financial stress on initiatives to recover from the pandemic. Thirteen projects have been identified with high potential in scope of developing clinical immunotherapies, point of care testing, and viral mutation tracking through to addressing the social and mental health aspects of COVID-19.
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Our UNSW Alumni have also been expressing their generosity by showing great acts of #CovidKindness in our community. Their inspiring act of innovative thinking and adaptations have spread throughout the Sydney community.
Educators and researchers at UNSW have shared valuable knowledge and given expert advice on how to manage this public health challenge, some of them are regulars on our TV screens. Professor Raina MacIntyre and Professor Marylouise McLaws, both Epidemiologists, amongst others from UNSW are now household names.
UNSW is also proud to have alumni Dr Kerry Chant awarded the Chancellor’s Award for Exceptional Alumni Achievement in the UNSW Alumni Awards for 2020. Dr Chant was also named NSW Premier’s Woman of the Year in the 2021 NSW Women of the Year Awards.
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Supporting our students
Remote learning has not been an easy adjustment and some of our students are facing challenges of accessibility, adequate studying spaces, and mental health. UNSW has a range of support and resources to assist all our students onshore and abroad.
UNSW has a website for students to support them in their online studies, which is integrated with all other student support resources on the Current Students website. The Work Integrated Learning (WIL) Central team has enabled students to undertake WIL in a work at home capacity.
Dedicated COVID-19 support
Our student support services and our dedicated COVID-19 support services remain on alert and are doing their best to cover the increased volume of enquiries that have arisen during the pandemic, including special consideration and being as flexible as possible with assessment deadlines.
Our IT team continues to provide their services to students who have difficulties accessing their course work or other educational technology related enquiry, while working from home.
For our onshore and on-campus students who were economically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Arc launched ‘Food Hub’ distributing up to 200 hampers, free of charge, each day, to ease the food relief on students.
To aid students who continue to remain offshore, UNSW has piloted the provision of two learning centres in China. Students can come together to study or undertake laboratory projects. This has been particularly valuable for final year Engineering students seeking to complete their degrees and undertake local, industry internships.
Remaining focused on our students' wellbeing
UNSW remains focused on supporting the wellbeing of our student community throughout the pandemic. Our wellbeing ‘Mind hub’ provides online resources and counselling support for those feeling anxious, sad or overwhelmed during this crisis. There is also a 24-hour confidential counselling services for offshore international students to have access to mental health support when in need.
Transforming education
Shifting to online teaching was a big challenge for UNSW educators especially for classes in laboratories and practical field work. Some of our educators had to be creativity with their experiments by ‘bringing the lab to the comfort of your home’, to allow students a full immersive experience without having to physically be in a laboratory.
Staying connected
Keeping connected with our students is our number one priority, especially for those who are isolated.
Through The Unravel series we were able to share a few stories of UNSW students who were affected by COVID-19. From finding belonging and overcoming social isolation to reimagining their future careers, the students reflect on how they are adapting to changing circumstance and overcoming unforeseen obstacles.
For our overseas students, the University has provided a Virtual Private Network solution enabling 9000 students studying remotely in China to seamlessly access UNSW online learning beyond the firewall. Furthermore, over 8000 new international students have successfully commenced virtual orientation since Australia’s borders closed in March 2020, with students participating in a series of events curated by Arc and Faculties to be virtually welcomed into the UNSW community.
Our Live Chat service, offered out of the University's standard hours has connected over 700 offshore international students with a student mentor who provides confidential support, guidance and connection.
We were fortunate enough to experience a few months while lockdown was lifted to hold on-campus graduation ceremonies, however we were able to re-create a virtual graduation for our students offshore. The UNSW community made sure our graduates receive the same level of excitement and triumph for their graduation ceremonies as they would in person, by simulated special videos, one for each faculty, through which our graduates have been able to share their moment – and our beautiful campus and merchandise – with family and friends.
What's next?
Learning and teaching during a pandemic provided us with many lessons learnt, which we are now committed to adopt in our new Education and Student Experience Strategy 2021–2025.
The transformative power of education is at the heart of our vision to improve lives around the globe. We’ve now entered the future of a multi-mode education and the importance of student experience has never been so crucial. The strategy’s title, Listening, Challenging, Supporting, captures the ambition: the strategy sets out 16 initiatives across the four areas of Acting on Insight, Educators of Excellence, A Demanding Standard and Building Communities. The strategy provides direction and support for our University’s pursuit of world-class educational outcomes and experiences for our students.
As we wait for the border restrictions to lift, we are eager to welcome back our international students but we acknowledge that this is likely to commence in 2022.