Studying at Maynooth this year

*Subject to change based on government guidelines.*

Our aim is to have on-campus teaching for all modules, with the exception of large modules delivered through Maynooth University (MU) (BATh students taking Arts subjects with MU) with over 250 students, most of which will be taught remotely. The reason for MU moving the large lectures to remote teaching is to reduce the overall number of people on campus at any time, and to reduce crowding at lecture changeover times. Currently for MU students the general plan can be summarised as:

Practicals - On-campus

Tutorials - On-campus

Lectures for modules expected to be 250 students or less - On campus

Lectures for modules expected to be over 250 students - Remote

When teaching is on-campus

You should plan to attend teaching on-campus, and make arrangements to commute or relocate as appropriate. Some of you may wonder if you could avoid travel and take all of your modules remotely. We are not in a position to provide fully remote teaching. If you do not attend, you will have access to notes and support materials, but this is not an adequate substitute for attendance.

Students with specific medical issues

If you are in a very high-risk category, your doctor may advise that you take special precautions, or that you do not attend the campus at all. If you are in a very high risk category we will ask you to provide medical documentation from your GP or consultant, to help us to decide how to proceed. Please contact the Student Heath Centre for guidance on what documents to provide and how we will use them. Where possible we will make arrangements to allow you to complete your degree. If this is not possible, we will help you to defer all or part of your studies until the situation improves.

Where teaching is online

In the event face to face teaching is replaced by online teaching or by a blend of online and in-person teaching, the following will occur; Lecturers will use a range of technologies, most commonly Panopto, and Teams. On your timetable the venue will be noted as “online” if the module is delivered entirely remotely. If the module will be delivered using a combination of online lectures and regular in-person attendance in smaller groups, the timetable will note the module as “blended” and will indicate the oncampus venue for the smaller group teaching, e.g. “JH1, Blended”.

It is important that you treat online lectures as seriously as you would treat in-person lectures. Ideally you should watch them at the scheduled time. If you cannot do that, you should watch them as close as you can to the scheduled time. If you allow a backlog to build up, you can easily fall behind.

This year, because of COVID, we would like to reduce the number of people on campus as much as possible. We ask you to study at home when you can, and come to campus for your scheduled teaching events.

Some of you will need to study on campus for various reasons. We have wi-fi access and study spaces spread throughout the buildings on campus. You are welcome to study on campus, but if you can conveniently study at home, that will leave the spaces for the people who really need them.

You will have less time on-campus, and yet you will be expected to complete the same modules and achieve the same learning outcomes. This means that you will have to take more of the responsibility for your own learning than ever. This will mean:

• Making sure you attend whenever you are expected to.

• Making sure you keep up with the online teaching and assignments.

• Checking your own progress regularly to make sure that you are up to date with your work

Click here for a full guide on studying at Pontifical University Maynooth in 2021/22

See below for some questions you may have regarding studying at Pontifical University Maynooth this year.