The University of Eastern Finland tightens its regulations relating to the COVID-19 coronavirus. As of Friday, 13 March 2020, all work- and studies-related travel abroad is prohibited, and leisure time travel is recommended to be avoided as well. Everyone returning from abroad must work or study from home for 14 days before coming to the university. Should someone now choose to travel abroad despite the travel ban, no salary will be paid during the 14-day stay-at-home period. At the moment, the university does not receive any external visitors, not from Finland or from abroad.
The university also tightens its regulations on domestic travel. Domestic travel is not recommended, and meetings requiring travel should be attended via videoconferencing solutions whenever possible.
People belonging to a risk group due to their medical condition (employees, students, the staff and pupils of the teacher training school) are to work or study remotely from their home. Working remotely from home is also recommended to all other employees whose duties allow for working from home. Further instructions on the practices relating to remote work will be issued next week.
The practices of notifying of a sick leave are also changed. For the time being, employees can go on sick leave for 7 days by notifying their supervisor of the matter, i.e. a visit to occupational health care is not required.
The university seeks to make its teaching increasingly available online. The Academic Rector as urged the units to examine their teaching and exam practices for the entire spring 2020 in order to ensure that students have an opportunity to complete studies and earn credits also under exceptional circumstances.
To prevent the spread of the coronavirus, it is necessary to limit the size of gatherings. The University of Eastern Finland follows the definition of policy of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare according to which no meetings or gatherings with more than 10 people should be organized. People attending meetings should keep a 1-metre distance to one another. In teaching, this group size is the preferred ideal, but if it is not possible to achieve this, teaching will, for the time being, continue to be organized normally.
The restrictions on travel and size of gatherings also have an impact on public examinations of doctoral dissertations. For the time being, public examinations of doctoral dissertations will be organized so that the opponent participates in the event via a videoconferencing solution, and the event will be streamed live. A maximum of 10 people may attend the meeting in person.
The coronavirus epidemic also affects the Sykettä sports services: for the time being, all Sykettä sports activities are cancelled.
For further information, please contact:
Director of Administration Tuomo Meriläinen, tel. 358403552299, tuomo.merilainen(at)uef.fi