UK music academies introduce restrictions
UncategorizedThe Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester issued this message last night:
Following the developing situation around COVID-19 and to prioritise the health and wellbeing of our community, the RNCM is moving to online teaching only with immediate effect. All scheduled assessments and examinations are postponed until further notice.
All events at the RNCM are postponed from Monday 16 March and box office sales (online, by phone and in person) are suspended with immediate effect. Where reinstatement of the performance at a later date is not possible, or if patrons are unable to make a rescheduled date, a full refund will be issued when services are resumed.
Staff and students should check Moodle, the Intranet and their College email accounts regularly and audiences should visit the RNCM website and social media channels for further updates.
The Royal Academy of Music posts:
As of today, the Academy has taken the decision to suspend all performance activity for the remainder of the term. The COVID-19 situation is developing rapidly, and our priority is to ensure the wellbeing of students, staff and our community, which is why we are taking these steps.
I don’t understand why colleges and universities are moving to online teaching but keeping facilities open. That makes absolutely no sense to me. Who knows what germs are lingering on library computers or on the pages of various library books. I would say you are just as likely to contract coronavirus in a library as you would in a lecture theatre. It is a totally bizarre decision and I can’t comprehend it.
It’s so they don’t have to pay refunds.
They’d go broke if they had to issue mass refunds, so have all adopted the online teaching route.
It’s not the lecture theatres that are the problem, nor as far as anyone knows the libraries. It is the crowds of students mingling before and after lectures and other teaching.
The library and other facilities are being kept open since many students live on campus and can’t leave to “go home”. They would be out on the street if the facilities were closed. The numbers are quite small.
It is pretty easy to maintain “social distancing” in the library, especially for the relatively small number of students remaining on campus. Having large numbers of students crammed into lecture rooms, on the other hand, makes it impossible to maintain “social distancing” (e.g. stay two metres apart).
RCS in Scotland has posted too.
On the RAM homepage:
“As of today, the Academy has taken the decision to suspend all performance activity for the remainder of the term. The COVID-19 situation is developing rapidly, and our priority is to ensure the wellbeing of students, staff and our community, which is why we are taking these steps.“
Well, the remainder of the term is only three weeks, not months on end at the moment.
What does take them so long? From today all conservatories here in France are closed, until further notice.
I guess it is their government who wants them to develop herd immunity; but good for them that they are not following their government’s dictates
Different country, different circumstances.
France has more cases than Britain, and started earlier. Hence Britain being a few days behind in its reaction.