In line with the Government’s latest guidance, some of our students will be returning to campus from March 8th to continue the practical elements of their studies.

Throughout the entire pandemic, we have worked hard to ensure that our campus is Covid-secure for those staff and students who have remained at Keele, to reduce transmission of coronavirus and keep cases to a minimum.

We have also closely monitored any cases that have arisen among our staff and students, providing as much support to affected individuals as we can, and have acted with transparency by proactively publishing our case numbers on our website every day.

Thanks to these measures and the efforts of the whole Keele community in adhering to them, and in contrast to the often negative reports about students in the media, cases of Covid-19 at Keele have been kept to a minimum throughout the pandemic.

However, the safety and wellbeing of our students, staff and visitors always remains our highest priority, and we will continue to implement measures to stop the spread of the virus in order to keep our whole campus community and people in the wider area safe.

As part of this approach we have set out five steps for our students’ safe return to campus:

• Adapting our campus and buildings to facilitate social distancing where possible, with clear signage
• Asking everyone who can to wear a face covering whilst indoors on campus
• Creating small households of no more than eight people in student halls
• Enabling the majority of office-based staff to work from home
• Providing Covid-19 testing on our campus for students and staff

We are fortunate to have a large and self-contained campus complete with shops, amenities, and multiple food and drink outlets, which are all available without having to leave campus. For those students who are not returning to campus, we will continue to deliver a high-quality online educational offering until such time as more students can return to Keele safely in-line with national guidelines.