How will life change at uni in SA in 2021 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic? We take a look at O-Week, classes, events and more
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The pandemic radically changed university life last year, but what will it be like in 2021?
With Orientation starting later this month, we’ve hit up all three SA unis for the latest on how O-Week, classes and events will be run this year, what’s new on campus, and what capital works are set to be done.
ADELAIDE UNIVERSITY
QR codes, wrist bands and COVID marshals for O-Week and plans for tutorials where some students are in the classroom and others are at home – life at Adelaide University is set to be different in 2021.
Orientation programs begin this week, starting with Indigenous and international students before official O-Week next week.
Adelaide University Union president Chuyue Angela Qin said there would be online events to engage new students but it was great to be able to have clubs set up stalls on campus and hold social events.
“We’ll have very strict restrictions in place with QR codes, wristbands and covid marshals,” she said.
Interim deputy vice-chancellor Jennie Shaw said online welcomes were necessary “because a number of our students are remaining in their homes, even though they’re in SA, because they’re vulnerable or live with vulnerable individuals”.
When classes begin, all lectures will be delivered online. They can be prerecorded or livestreamed by a lecturer working on their own or speaking in front of a class.
Tutorials are expected to be about 60 per cent face-to-face and 40 per cent online.
Students will be able to choose which mode to use.
The uni is working on being able to hold a tutorial with some students in the room and others attending remotely.
“We will have a pilot later this year to explore that,” Prof Shaw said.
“But it requires some physical changes to the teaching spaces. We have to make sure it’s truly interactive – we can’t have people talking face-to-face and then turning to a screen and saying, ‘oh, sorry, I forgot about you guys’.
“We want the students online to feel as much part of the class as those who are there.”
Offers to domestic undergraduate students are up 11 per cent, and 50 per cent for postgraduates.
New international student enrolments are down 16 per cent, which is not as sharp a drop as earlier feared.
There are more than 150 clubs at Adelaide and a multitude of sports which will hold come-and-try sessions.
Adelaide University Touch Club has just been named club of the year in the uni‘s annual sports awards.
Treasurer Iona Skyring said it had been great to field much stronger women’s teams.
“We used to get pummelled all the time but we’re much more competitive now,” she said.
FLINDERS UNIVERSITY
ORIENTATION “week” at Flinders University will in fact be spread over a whole month, to meet COVID-19 restrictions and avoid students beingbombarded with information.
It will include online and on-campus opportunities for students to meet each other and become informed about opportunities offered at Flinders.
The Orientation period, starting February 22, will feature four fair days, live music, stalls entertainment and games.
The university will this year introduce a buddy initiative called the O’Guide Program, where a current student will show new students the ropes and answer their questions.
The program will be offered both on campus and online.
O’Week creative adviser Claudia Bradley, a business and law student, said it was about students engaging with each other.
“It’s all about looking ahead and knowing that the skies really are the limits,” she said.
Flinders is set to welcome more than 11,000 new students this year.
The campus is more accessible this year thanks to the new Flinders Link train line.
The rirst pop-up village food and beverage vendors expected to be in place at the new train station’s plaza precinct in March.
Much is planned for the campus this year, including a cultural ceremonial and event space to host larger scale Welcome to Country and smoking ceremonies.
The space will also provide a culturally significant meeting place for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and staff at Bedford Park.
Work is planned to start in March and should be finished in June.
Work on a new, state-of-the-art biodiversity building will also begin, and the university’s Wine Sensory Room, which was completedlate last year and includes wine tasting benches for up to 30 students, will give students the chance to learn from wine industryprofessionals.
The first sod is expected to be turned at Flinders Village’s centrepiece, the Flinders Health and Medical Research Building, later this year.
Senior deputy vice-chancellor Clare Pollock said 2021 enrolments were up more than 10 per cent compared to the same time last year, with 11,300 new students projected to start.
“We have a great range of new courses that have attracted several hundred students, along with our many popular establishedofferings – and have noticed a strong emphasis on health-related courses this year,” Professor Pollock said.
She said demand from international students, who were starting or continuing their courses online, remained “good”.
“Nevertheless we understand that these students are keen to have an Australian educational experience here in Australia,” Prof Pollock said.
“That’s why we’re working with the federal and state government to be ready to welcome our
students back when it is safe to do so.”
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
UNI can be daunting for new students but UniSA has something to smooth the transition that many will find familiar from schooldays - a buddy system.
Orientation will be somewhat different this year, with new pre-registered campus tours and online student panels among thechanges.
But the mentoring system, which for the first time last year reached all new students, is back.
UniSA student engagement director Brendan Hughes said the UniMentor program evolved from the merger and expansion of two peer support programs from the business and education faculties.
He said it now reached “across all our programs in all our campuses”, helping ensure new students realise “they’re not alone”.
“Lots of new students who are going to university for the first time think that they’re in this on their own but actually,we welcome 5000 new students each year,” he said.
“So what it does is it helps to provide a bit of context to their situation … informal advice and perspective.”
New students tend to ask their mentors lots of questions, about courses, lecturers, or where to go to study, and they havesomeone to show them around and introduce them.
COVID restrictions mean most lectures and exams will continue online for Semester 1, while tutorials, workshops, practicalsand studio sessions will be held face-to-face,
Teegan Fitzhardy, 17, who is soon to begin her first year of a double degree in law and commerce, was pleased to be pairedwith mentor William Feller, 22, now in his fourth year of the same course.
“It’s really good to have someone that you can ask all the silly little questions, to guide you around the uni,” she said.
“A person that’s just been in your shoes before you, walking the same steps, on a very similar journey. Then you can ask for some guidance, around where they might have gone wrong in the past, so you can avoid making the same mistakes.”
Orientation for 2021 will be a mixture of online and on-campus activities throughout the year.
“New students, their family and friends will have more flexibility – our COVID-safe measures offer a more personalised approachthrough smaller, pre-registered groups, smaller in-person program sessions, as well as online sessions,” Mr Hughes said.
“We want students to be able to interact safely and get excited about studying at UniSA.’’
UniSA Student Association president Noah Beckmann said a campus fair would be held in weeks two and three on all UniSA campuses.
“It’s where all the clubs and services show students what’s on offer,” he said.
“It’s aimed at new and returning students.”