COVID-19 Update Fri 21 Jan 2022

Published date : Fri, 21 January 2022 09:20 AM

COVID-19 and campus information update

Tēnā koutou katoa, ngā mihi o te tau hou Pākeha ki tēnā, ki tēnā a tātau.

We are well underway with our planning for the year ahead, and as always, our priority remains the safety and wellbeing of our kaimahi, tauira, hapori, and manuhiri.
With this in mind, all campuses will remain closed until at least 15 February 2022.

Most courses will continue to be delivered online until at least 15 February 2022. There are some exceptions to this, such as nursing, and tauira in those courses will be communicated with directly by their programme leader.

Another key part of our planning for safely delivering education this year, is undertaking a consultation process around a COVID-19 vaccine policy. The objective of this consultation is to decide whether we require proof of COVID-19 vaccination for kaimahi, tauira and manuhiri across all three wānanga campuses and additional delivery sites, such as marae.

The consultation will take place with kaimahi from 25 January 2022 until 7 February 2022. Submissions and feedback will then be considered, and a decision will be made and communicated by 14 February 2022.

Kaimahi will receive further information about the consultation early next week. This will include what the policy is considering and why, and information on how to provide feedback.

The campus closure will be reviewed after consultation on the policy has been completed, to decide if further closure is required.

Rules that are currently in place for kaimahi, tauira and manuhiri visiting our sites will remain in place. If you are on-site, please remember to use the NZ COVID Tracer App to scan in, wear a face covering if appropriate, and practice physical distancing where you can.

We appreciate the challenges that these rules may create, but we remain committed to providing a safe environment for our kaimahi and tauira. As such, these decisions must be considered carefully, and we want to provide a period of due diligence for consultation around this important decision with our kaimahi.

We believe that keeping the campuses closed in the interim provides consistency and surety for students, until a final decision is made around whether we introduce a policy.

Ngā mihi, me ngā manaakitanga kia koutou katoa.