We had planned to start our practical teaching from 30th March, everything was in place. Strict hygiene was going to be used, at least 2m between each student. And then the government decided that groups of more than 4 were banned in public spaces. Is the laboratory of a university a public space – I…
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The coronavirus pandemic has swept around the world and is wreaking havoc. Having got the initial outbreak under control Hong Kong is now dealing with a wave of imported cases. What this means for us is that we have new challenges to meet. Many of our students are resident outside Hong Kong and need to…
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As coronavirus spreads around the world the impacts on day-to-day here at HKU change. Although the number of cases in Hong Kong is still quite low, and the outbreak seems to be coming under some sort of control in mainland China, there are now large outbreaks in Italy, Iran and South Korea. We have many…
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The Covid-19 epidemic seems to be sweeping across the world. Big outbreaks now in Iran, Italy and South Korea. We have a lot fo South Korean students of course so that will need managing as they return to Hong Kong (if they return). Cases in mainland China seem to have peaked and slowly things are…
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The coronavirus outbreak continues, but we have done the planning necessary to deliver teaching to out students. This will be online for March and we have worked out how to compress all practical teaching into the month of April. If we can do this then we will be able to finish semester just one week…
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With the coronavirus outbreak still ongoing, HKU has decided to teach online for the month of March. This has meant that all teaching staff are working hard to convert their courses to online mode, and that all practical teaching will now have to be delivered in a concentrated five-week period starting 30th March. This has…
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Chinese New Year was quite early in the year but we are now well into the Year of the Rat. Unfortunately we are still looking at the coronavirus outbreak in Mainland China, with an increasing (but still low) number of cases in Hong Kong. This has meant that we have taken teaching online again for…
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Hong Kong is swept up into the ongoing crisis that is the Wuhan coronavirus epidemic. With 14,500 cases worldwide and over 300 deaths it is very serious, but so far in Hong Kong there have been just 14 cases. We have just one week of semester done, but we have decided to move to online…
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This was the first week of the new semester crammed in before Chinese New Year. We saw a resurgence in the protestor activity with new graffiti and the rebuilding on the Lennon Wall. But the main news has been the building epidemic of the Wuhan coronavirus which has now appeared in Hong Kong with suspected…
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This week has been the last one before the start of a new semester. I have to admit to being nervous about how this one might work out. I held a short briefing session for staff to allow discussion about how people were feeling before stepping into the lecture theatre next week. At least after…
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