The University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) has decided to extend the suspension of all face-to-face in-class teaching for the reminder of the 2019-2020 academic year. This decision, taken jointly with the Department of Education of the Basque Government, and Unibasq, the Agency for Quality of the Basque University System has been made public by the rector of the public university, Nekane Balluerka, after several meetings held over the past few days with different academic bodies (Governing Board, teams of deans and directors of centres and departments) as well as with student representatives.

UPV/EHU had already started to adopt preventive measures as a consequence of the situation and evolution of COVID -19 before the declaration of state of alarm last March 14th. The university implemented a virtual platform and EHUedonondik as measures to guarantee all its students the continuation of their education. Subsequently, the Spanish Government extended in two occasions the state of alarm and the confinement of citizens, which will for now last until April 26th.

The development of the sanitary crisis is still not clear. Given that it is not possible to resume in-class face-to-face teaching at UPV/EHU under these conditions, the university has decided to extend online and remote teaching for the remainder of this academic year.

As a consequence, the Vicerrectorate of Undergraduate and Postgraduate Studies will elaborate and present to the Permanent Commission of the Governing Board the necessary modifications and adaptations so that the present academic year can finalize with all security and transparency guarantees the students demand in the development of their studies. This adaptacion may affect diverse areas: the exam calendar, teaching guides, teaching and evaluation systems, curricular and extracurricular practices and any other aspect whose modifications may be necessary.

This means that non face-to-face teaching at UPV/EHU will continue to be implemented following the guidelines set up in the platform EHUedonondik (which establishes the bases and directives of non face-to-face teaching) as well as the measures adopted until now by the teaching centres at UPV/EHU.

In the face of this decision, the rector of the University, Nekane Ballukera, has manifested her firm conviction that the 2019-2020 academic year will develop with full academic rigor: “All the university community – teaching and research staff, administrative and service staff and students – are making extraordinary efforts to develop optimal conditions for non face-to-face teaching. I want to publicly thank this dedication and compromise. The rectoral team steems that the decision to extend this teaching method until the end of the academic year was the most reasonable option given the present situation. We are living through a period of great uncertainty and we must adjust to the events as they develop and at this moment that was the most adequate step to take in order to finalize the 2019-2020 academic year.