When asked if he believes students will be on campus in September and October, Simon Harris has said “I do actually”.
In an interview with Shane Coleman on Newstalk Breakfast this morning, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Innovation and Research stated that “while [he] can’t be overly prescriptive now, what [he] can say is [he] expects a lot more on site activity in the new college year”.
“To be fair to students and to be fair to staff I provide a more substantive update than a couple of words and I want to do that at the start of the summer,” he continued.
Harris stated that though he is “concerned” about the current Covid-19 case numbers, he believes based on “the vaccine bonus and where we’re likely to be with vaccinations through the summer months and into the autumn, [he] thinks we’ll be in a very very different place” come September.
Harris also spoke about potential easing of Covid-19 restrictions saying although there is “a lot of doom and gloom out there in the moment” he “genuinely believes that we are heading into a summer where we can see hope and where we can see reopening”. “The government are going to have to talk to people about what the way out of this looks like.”
Harris highlighted that he plans to offer a further “more substantive” update on the resumptions of on campus activities in the summer saying “we will spell out what we believe that looks like in the early summer”.
At the end of February a Trinity spokesperson told Trinity News: “We are hopeful, based on this information, that College can resume more face to face teaching in September.”
“However, it will of course depend on the progress of the pandemic and on public health advice,” they added.
