McGill University announced that the Winter 2021 semester will be held primarily online today, Tuesday, September 29. This announcement comes a day after Montreal’s COVID-19 alert was raised to red Level 4, as Quebec’s daily number of new cases continues to rise. In his email to the McGill community, Provost Christopher Manfredi cited the “possible further development of COVID-19” as the primary reason that the university will continue to operate remotely.
McGill’s announcement comes days after Concordia University and Universite de Montreal announced that their winter 2021 semesters will also be primarily delivered online.
Manfredi’s email explained that McGill will implement enhanced in-person teaching activities where possible, using three tiers of priorities to guide the activities of Winter semester.
Tier 1, the top priority, includes critical laboratories, clinical activities, project courses and other experiential in-person components of courses, while seminar courses, tutorial conference sections and certain lectures comprise Tier 2. The third and lowest priority tier includes additional courses across more programs.
Similar to the current Fall 2020 semester, McGill will grant access to student service offices and libraries in the form of study hubs as public health guidelines permit.
Manfredi noted: “We continue to monitor the situation closely and will make adjustments as needed,” acknowledging that the administration is working closely with faculties to plan for possible in person activities for the coming semester.
This is a developing story and will be updated as new information becomes available.
