COVID-19 Update Thur 14 Apr 2022

Yesterday the Government announced a move to the ‘Orange’ setting of the traffic light system. Effective from 11:59pm on Wednesday April 13. 

Under an orange setting, tertiary education facilities can open again. While we look forward to welcoming our tauira back to campus soon, we will remain teaching majority of our classes online until the end of Semester One, on 8 July 2022.

We have decided this is the best option to ensure consistency of delivery and quality of teaching.  Likewise, to provide us with sufficient time to prepare for a safe return to campus for our tauira and kaimahi.

There will be some exceptions to this; if our kaimahi feel it is important for learning outcomes, some classes may return to campus sooner, as they have been during the past few months. If any tauira would like to discuss learning support and requirements, you can do so by contacting your kaiako.

We know a number of you are very keen to get back on site and enjoy kanohi ki te kanohi engagement again. Our Awhi Tauira team are currently exploring what options might be possible here, and which would allow some of our students to access learning spaces across our campuses - for example, the library.  We hope to provide an update on these options shortly. 

All of our decisions have been designed to support the safety of our tauira, kaimahi and manuhiri. We have also been committed to ensuring consistency in the way we are delivering our teaching and to avoid any confusion. We believe that this measured approach offers the best quality education and enables us to avoid disruption as much as possible during this challenging time. Our decisions have likewise been informed by the advice from Government, the vaccination rates of our kaimahi and tauira, and the case numbers in the community where we have campuses.

Our focus now turns to safely reopening our campuses and welcoming you back to kanohi ki te kanohi learning in a few months’ time. Advice provided to us, suggests that this winter could be a challenging time, and that the COVID-19 virus is something we will have to learn to live with for some time to come. We will therefore still be practicing distancing where possible on campus and encouraging use of masks inside.

Please remember: the wānanga may still require masks in certain settings regardless of the traffic light colour, or if there is an increase in positive cases on campuses or delivery sites.

In regard to the vaccine policy introduced by the Council and Leadership of Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, this is still being discussed.  However, we expect that there will not be any vaccine policy requirements in place by the time we reopen campus. An update will be shared following the next Council hui.

As always, if you have any pātai, please reach out to us.  We are here to help.