From lockdown to lecture hall

"The greatest challenge hasn't been the implementation of the all the detailed health and security measures," says University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) Provost Professor Nick Miles. "It's been managing the often conflicting opinions and expectations of so many people. It's been a tricky balancing act."

On the face of it, though, the very first Sino-UK university seems to be managing the reopening of its Ningbo campus very well. The great majority of students have successfully returned to resume face-to-face teaching and prepare for end-of-year examinations. It's an achievement that appeared highly unlikely during those bleak, early weeks of the Covid-19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdown in China.

China shuts down as virus strikes

When the coronavirus first hit the headlines in mid-January, almost all UNNC students had already departed for the Chinese Spring Break holidays, with many returning to their home cities, towns and villages in other provinces. By Chinese New Year, the country was fully in the grips of the COVID-19 lockdown and the return of students to Ningbo appeared well beyond a very distant horizon.

Adding to the uncertainty was the significant number of academic staff who had left China during the Spring break, either to visit their home countries or to go on holiday. Most were understandably cautious about returning to a China in COVID-19 lockdown, especially those with families. A month later and that decision would be taken out of their hands as Beijing responded to the spread of virus internationally by barring entry to all non-Chinese citizens. This reduction of key teaching staff only further increased the likelihood that the Ningbo campus would be unable to reopen before the start of the 2021/22 academic year.

UNNC shifts to online teaching

Even as the daily number of new infections in China started to fall, the prospect of students being allowed back onto campuses appeared distant. It soon became clear that the only way for the university to continue operations was to find an online teaching solution.

UNNC's Learning Technologies Team and IT department rose to the challenge. Special online teaching tools were developed while servers and broadband speeds were upgraded to handle the inevitable increased workloads. These efforts were rewarded with the university able to roll out online teaching at the start of March.

Despite early teething problems, software such as Microsoft teams and Zoom allowed classes to maintain the essence of the teaching experience and allowed students a semblance of the social element crucial to university life. During its busiest period, over 400 academic staff, located all around the world, gave online lectures and seminars to around 8,000 students both inside China and abroad - as far afield as Africa and Europe. Provost Nick Miles described the scale of the achievement as "unprecedented".

However, it wasn't all plain sailing. Although a worthy technical success, the glaring limitations of online teaching were regularly exposed. Academic staff missed the to-and-fro of classroom interactions with students, whereas students were pining for a return to a more sociable learning environment as well as valuable life experiences with classmates and friends.

Preparations made as China reemerges from virus

By the middle of March, China had started to ease lockdown and travel restrictions in many parts of the country. As trains, bus routes, shops and workplaces all started to reopen, the vexed question of the possible return of students to campus was mooted. However, the return of thousands of young people from all over China was to be a logistical and operational challenge on a level never faced before by UNNC or the city of Ningbo.

After consulting closely with the local Ningbo Education Bureau, university leaders were in little doubt that the conditions necessary for the return of students would be stringent.

In the days and weeks leading up to the return, students were required to send in daily body temperature records via a mobile app. Those residing in provinces badly affected by COVID-19 - Hubei, Heilongjiang and Guangdong - had to undertake COVID-19 tests on arrival in Ningbo and before gaining entry to the campus. Furthermore, students from Wuhan were obliged to self-isolate at the campus hotel for fourteen days after arrival.

In preparation, several campus facilities received physical or operational overhauls. Lecture halls were specially adapted to better suit social distancing measures and to accommodate both online and face-to-face teaching. Although these modifications led to a reduction in capacity, it allowed the university to comply with social distancing guidelines of the World Health Organisation.

Similarly, canteens and study areas were also subjected to major modifications and new regulations, such as the introduction of small, 2-place tables, separated by dividers and the removal of larger tables and desks.

A fortnight before the official reopening, UNNC staff and students (those that remained on campus during the break) took part in a series of practice drills inside the dormitories, the library and sports centre. The drills showcased worst-case scenarios - such as a student testing positive for COVID-19 - and put the social tracing and isolation mechanisms put in place to handle such an event through their paces.

Concerns raised by anxious parents

Inevitably, these practical preparations - albeit lengthy and rigorous - were the simpler part of any return-to-campus equation. Much less predictable were the differing reactions of staff, students and the broader Ningbo community.

Numerous parents, in particular, contacted the university with concerns about reopening the campus so soon after the easing of the virus lockdown restrictions. "After COVID-19, they were worried about their children living and studying with those from other provinces," says Nick Miles. "As a parent, it was understandable and we had to manage those concerns patiently and sensitively - it was really important."

A level playing field for all students

Such concerns were important in the establishment of several essential principles. Firstly, the return of students was to be purely voluntary. Absent students would be required to register before the resumption of face-to-face campus teaching, but no student would be compelled to return to campus against his or her will and no-one would be penalised by the university for not doing so. Furthermore, students choosing not to return were to receive online classes that were integrated, or ran parallel to, those of their friends in the lecture halls and laboratories.

"A lot of work went into making online students feel as valued as those back on campus," says Nick Miles. "It's not been seamless, but we've done a lot to maintain a consistent quality of teaching and student assessment, regardless of where a student is located."

Another genuine concern was the return of academic staff stranded outside the country. Before the ban on all non-Chinese citizens entering the country, the university relaxed many of its travel expense regulations and offered extensive assistance to staff wishing to return. Although still operating with depleted staff numbers, the situation is better than forecast and is expected to improve greatly when the inward travel ban is eventually lifted.

The campus gates are finally reopened

After gaining final approval from the local authorities, UNNC finally reopened its gates to students, the return being staggered over two weekends at the end of April and start of May. The return was rigorously controlled, with students being met by volunteer staff at the airport and Ningbo train station before boarding special buses to the campus. At the gates, volunteer students were on hand to answer questions and assist new arrivals with installing and operating the necessary mobile health app.

"The return went relatively smoothly," says Nick Miles. "It was another clear example that this project has been mainly about people. Yes, the tech helps, but people have been at the heart of this achievement."

New stringent epidemic prevention and control measures were introduced in time for the return, including the mandatory wearing of masks in teaching areas and elevators, the ventilation of dormitories and public areas and enhanced disinfection and sanitation regimes. Returning students also saw a noticeable increase in the number of security guards and cleaning personnel.

Around 5,500 of UNNC's 7200 students returned to the Ningbo campus over the two weekends, a figure that far exceeded expectations. The number is a testament to the hard work put in by many at the university, its local education partner, Wanli Education Group and the Ningbo government.

"There's a valuable lesson here for other universities in the same boat, " says Nick Miles. "Work alongside your local partners. Without them, there is no way we could have reopened as soon, or as smoothly, as we did."

Campus life returns to "a new normal"

There is no easy way back from the COVID-19 crisis for the many thousands of universities around the world so badly affected by the pandemic. UNNC has certainly not emerged unscathed - student behaviour must be closely monitored and their off-campus activities are severely restricted.

Such controls will loosen at the right time. Spare a thought, though, for the class of 2020, robbed of a once-in-a-lifetime graduation ceremony that is highly unlikely to take place anytime in the near future.

All being said, though, UNNC is now well out of COVID-19's dark tunnel. "There were only chinks of light visible a few months ago," says Provost Nick Miles. "Now the lecture rooms and canteens are buzzing again. Students are reading in the sunshine again. What a beautiful campus we have here - but it's all for nothing without students."