University of Luxembourg will remain closed until the end of the academic year

Classes were supposed to take place until 14 May. However, as Minister of Education Claude Meisch announced that schools will remain closed until 4 May, the administration of the university decided that it would be pointless to make students attend classes for 10 days.

The current semester was extended until 4 September. This extension allows for the completion of practical assignments that require the physical presence of students. All other exams are planned to take place remotely from the end of May until mid-July.

According to the Ministry of Higher Education, students will also not be penalised for failing an exam this semester, and do not risk to be excluded from the curriculum due to the exceptional circumstances.

Employees and students of the University of Luxembourg received an e-mail on Friday, which was made available to RTL, informing them of the changes.

Mail

Dear colleagues,

At the eve of our Easter break, I want to convey to you a few important messages.

First, we are ready to announce the following end of semester modalities in the current Covid-19 crisis :

All exams will take place remotely except in very specific cases for which physical presence is essential.

When it comes to remote exam formats, the University recognizes that the large diversity of programs offered makes a one-size-fits-all approach inappropriate. Each study program director will announce the exam format relevant to his/her program.

The semester officially ends on September 4th, which allows for some practical assignments (TPs, TDs) to be performed, when the latter cannot be suitably substituted. Some exams may hence also take place beyond July 4th, which has typically marked the upper limit of our exam period.

Failure at an exam this semester will not count in the maximum number of attempts at a student's disposal.

All internships that could not take place will be replaced by an alternative remote assignment to be determined by the study director.

The vice-rector for academic affairs will communicate shortly the detail of all decisions.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an event of historic dimensions. The state of emergency declared in Luxembourg on March 18th has led to unprecedented changes in our daily lives. With the online platform #Covidmemory, the University of Luxembourg's Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH) wants to offer everyone the opportunity to share their experiences and preserve them for future generations. You are welcome to upload photos, videos, drawings, posters, songs or texts, to this open and free platform and document how this pandemic has changed your lives. The place to upload testimonies is https://covidmemory.lu. As the title of our press release rightfully states: "History is today." And we are all part of it.

Finally, as announced earlier, Student services (SEVE) and a team of psychologists of the Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences have been making excellent progress on the preparation of an electronic platform for those in the University community who wish to have psychological and wellbeing support in the current crisis. If you are experiencing personal or work problems, emotional or mental health difficulties, this service can support you. The online service will provide a mix of information, instructional material and a remote counselling service with qualified staff members and will be fully operational from Tuesday April 14th. All services are free of charge and confidential. The platform, where you can already make an appointment, can be found here: umatter.uni.lu.

I wish you all a very nice Easter break. I hope you will be able to enjoy some rest in spite of the rigors of confinement.

With very best regards,

Stéphane Pallage
Recteur | Rector | Rektor