Statement from Eastern Mediterranean University

📣 Statement on the decision of the board of directors of the Eastern Mediterranean University

In line with the recommendation of the Rector’s Office, the Board of Directors of our University held an online meeting on 21.09.2020 and assessed the global pandemic period in detail within the framework of educational activities. For the fall semester of the 2020-2021 academic year
It was decided that online education could be conducted using electronic and digital facilities, and if necessary, various requests could be submitted by obtaining the approval of the department in order to meet the request and other educational and training needs of the university  / department / program / courses in a healthy manner.
The decision taken by the Board of Directors is in line with the decisions of the Council of Ministers of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the YÖK Council and the YÖDAK.
According to the suggestion of the Ministry of Health within the scope of the decision taken by the Supreme Elections Commission on September 4, our university decided in the fall semester of 2020-2021 in formal education to hold distance education.
While making this decision, epidemiological risk factors were taken into consideration, especially with regard to students affected by the pandemic and public health. Moreover, to our country comes from Turkey two planes per day. The very limited number of flights between Istanbul and Ercan and the increase in ticket prices create great difficulty for students to come to the island.
From that a comprehensive decision was taken in order to provide equal education without discrimination among students. Providing education to our students in different ways according to their type of entry may lead to difficulties and differences among students. With the decision taken by our Board of Directors, it enables various applications including face-to-face applications.
The recent increase in global cases in the pandemic has reached an important point. It is becoming imperative to take advantage of digital opportunities in higher education. The chaos and uncertainty caused by an accident that will occur in face-to-face education, the classroom environment, group activity areas or places on campus, furthermore, the high risk of the epidemic reveals the possibility of a campus being partially or completely quarantined. Moreover, it will expose the city The entire risk is high. In fact, there are examples of this in the world where a face-to-face learning environment was created and the pandemic could not be controlled after a while on university campuses and universities and cities were forced to close completely. The decision is of great importance in terms of preventing such problems and continuing education activities on campus in a controlled manner.
Today, we have more than 7,000 students in our city, on our campus. Almost 9,000 students are abroad. Our university has provided all kinds of services and support to its students since the early days of the pandemic and will continue to do so. Our students in our country can benefit from all kinds of campus and university facilities. Moreover, there will be opportunities to participate in the various practices that will be implemented in order to meet the needs of  the university  / department / program / courses in a healthy manner and other educational and training needs. In short, students in the TRNC will be able to perform face-to-face practice lessons, within the framework of the decision that the Faculties will make, the teachers will be at their offices during business hours and answer students’ questions. Our library serves by meeting the health requirements, and the administrative units of our university will continue to serve. We wish to see our students safely on our campus.
In the decision that was made, priority was given to the health of our students and our academic and administrative staff on one hand, and the difficulty of our international students in entering the island, on the other hand, was taken into consideration. Flights from some countries are completely closed. The majority of our students come from Group C countries and when the 14-day quarantine requirements are calculated, this leads to the conclusion that the campus cannot be reached until the middle or the end of the semester. For our students to enroll in our university in such a crisis, it is imperative that we offer them a flexible curriculum. This period is a temporary period. It even provides a great opportunity to plan for the next quarter. Our goal is for our students to come to our country safely during this period. Today, in addition to the restrictions imposed on our students in our country on flights, the obligation to wait seven or fourteen days in quarantine according to their nationalities takes our opportunity to make appropriate plans and preparations for the new semester that will start on October 12th.
Our university is complete with Famagusta. The university and the city are two parts inseparable from each other. Cooperation between the city and the university is inevitable. Especially in periods like this, we work together to overcome this process with minimal harm. We are working to spend this period in a healthy way with our students in Famagusta, our students who will benefit from digital learning opportunities this semester and our students preparing to come to our campus. Our ability to use this period effectively and efficiently will provide us with much more opportunities for the upcoming period. The course of the pandemic  in the coming winter days is still unknown. In light of this uncertainty, it is our great desire to provide equal rights to our current and new students and not to separate them from our university. Moreover, in the event that the pandemic  ends or its positive course, it will allow the necessary training conditions to be reviewed. We have no doubt that on such difficult days, we will be able to succeed together by working side by side
And that our city will meet again with our students who cannot be among us today in a short time.