Info Coronavirus (COVID-19)

NO.The University of Bucharest is not closed. Ouradministrative services remain open and fully functional.  Each and every student of the UB‘s 19 faculties can interact individually, directly and unmediated with our colleagues from the administrative departments, secretariats or professors only for activities with no online support (signatures, study documents etc.). Many European financed mobilities are postponed or suspended until further instructions. Concerned students, academics, personnel are also asked to follow the financing institution websites or the websites of the respective mobility programs (ex. Erasmus + https://www.erasmusplus.ro/).

UPDATE 3:

UPDATE 2: Face-to-face courses remain suspended until the end of the 2019-2020 academic year.

UPDATE. The suspension of face-to-face courses has been extended for the period of state of emergency.  According to the Presidential Decree 195 issued on  16.03.2020, the state of emergency has been established for a period of 30 days. The courses will continue to be held online, according to the schedule. For details, students are kindly asked to keep in touch with their professors.
YES. Considering the recommendations of the National Committee for Special Emergency Situations, The Board of Directors of the University of Bucharest has decided to temporary suspend ”face to face” courses, from March 11^th until March 31^st, 2020. Other later decisions may be taken according to recommendations of state’s institutions and shall be communicated on the UB website and through all other UB communication channels.

YES. Depending on the evolution of the situation caused by the COVID-19, the aforementioned period could be extended and the measures taken may be modified. The University of Bucharest will act according to recommendations of authorized institutions and will make it a priority to take care of the health of its own employees, students, academics, administrative staff, natural and legal persons with whom the UB collaborates or has punctual or periodic activities.

YES. There will be an online teaching activity while “face to face” courses are suspended. In this regard, a Coordination Group for Online Educational Activities will provide technical support and will assist teachers and students in the transition process to online communication and teaching. The teaching activity may be submitted to changes due to current situation. Applicative activities (laboratories etc.) and other kinds of teaching activities which cannot be partially or totally replaced by new technologies, could be postponed or done in some other way, that could allow students to study all the mandatory curricula (e.g. academics assisting students to prepare some materials, papers, specific documentation activities, accessing digital libraries, shared work on online platforms, teleconferences and videoconferences, using some personal or institutional blogs, requesting the support of project partners from other countries and many others).

The members of the group can be contacted anytime at edu.online@unibuc.ro for any concerns related to the smooth organization of the online activity.

The Coordination Group for Online Educational Activities has the following activities:

• managing the extended technical support of the IT&C Department;
• managing and training student teams to provide technical support for each faculty;
• assessing the necessary resources for each faculty’s educational activities and identifying common-used teaching and learning online methods, based on the answers from faculties’ support groups;
• writing an online resources user guide for the teaching and learning process, that will be sent soon to the faculties;
• helping the faculties with no available online platform to integrate into the university’s Moodle platform;
• purchasing the development, implementation, maintenance and training services from a specialized company to increase the teachers and students’ access to the university’s online educational resources;
• purchasing performant servers for the proper support of the university’s online educational resources;
• preparing tutorials of how to use the online resources for which technical support and use will be provided at the university level; these tutorials will be gradually transmitted to the faculties, at the same time as implementating and enabling resources;
• preparing the online training sessions for teachers who are facing problems in using the university’s online resources.  

Each faculty will form its own Support Group for the Online Educational Activities, coordinated by the dean or the vice-dean.

The main activity of the Support Group for the Online Educational Activities will be to organize the new online communication system with students at faculty level, considering the following:

• uploading lectures to the e-learning platforms;
• providing necessary technology (limited to existing resources) and technical assistance for the academics who haven’t used before online communication platforms or techniques;
• enabling accessof the teachers to the individual or group e-mail addresses of the students enrolled to courses;
• contacting potential partners (IT&C companies) which have already implemented alternative education technologies, to support the UB learning process.

Regarding the implementation in the online system of the didactic activities in the following period, the university will prioritize the organization of activities of final year students, trying to minimize the risk of not completing the study cycles in due time. Students will keep in touch with their academic thesis coordinators, dean, vice-dean/vice-deans of the faculty where they learn; they will provide support, recommendations, answers, either directly or through appointed people with specific responsibilities, by formal and non-formal communication channels.

The members of the Coordination Group for Online Educational Activities can be contacted anytime at edu.online@unibuc.ro for any concerns related to the smooth organization of the online activity.

Considering the new Coronavirus COVID-19 situation, the University of Bucharest decided to postpone for 30 days the deadline for fee payments that cannot be processed online. This decision is applicable to all types of fees (accommodation fees, tuition fees, other administrative fees etc.)

The 30 day payment term is applicable from the due date of each type of fee.

The Board of Directors of the University of Bucharest decided to reschedule, for a later date, extracurricular activities (conferences, book launching, speeches, workshops, sports competitions, shows and many others) scheduled to take place between the 11^th – 31^st of March 2020. If there is a concrete, argumented, realistic proposal to hold such an online event, the person who proposes this activity should send all the data to the organizers and to the UB decision-makers for a quick briefing to decide whether to hold such an event under the new circumstances.

All students’ hostels providing accommodation to the University of Bucharest’s students are opened. Students and students’ hostels personnel have the obligation to respect the hygiene and protection norms and recommendations against current epidemics.

The University of Bucharest has provided several lodgings to students who may need to self-isolate. If you are in this situation, inform immediately, by phone or other means that don’t involve direct contact, people who could help you: University Medical Cabinet, students’ hostel administrator, faculty teacher, same year colleague, hostel fellow etc. in order to quickly receive authorized healthcare instructions.  

NO. The activity of the ”Mihail Kogălniceanu” dining hall of the University of Bucharest is suspended between the 11^th– 31^stof March 2020. This period may be extended, depending on the evolution of current situation.

YES. The Medical University Cabinet located in the ”Mihail Kogălniceanu” Students’ Hostel is opened. Here you can check the schedule and contact details. Get in touch with the cabinet for any useful information.

PARTLY. The University of Bucharest requested the Central University Library to temporary close the reading halls located in the faculties’ buildings. The borrowing centres are still opened. Please check also the information of respective libraries websites.

Due to the new Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation, the University of Bucharest’s Department for Counseling and Career Guidance decided to temporary replace  ”face to face” individual psychological support with online and phone support.

Sessions are available from Monday to Thursday between 10 am and 2 pm and on Friday between 10 am and 12 am. Students already under counselling will be notified by their assigned psychologist.

If you are interested in the services offered by the Department for Counseling and Career Guidance, please fill in this schedule form.

For more details please contact us at contact@dcoc.unibuc.ro

Follow the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the recommendations for travelling abroad: http://www.mae.ro/. The University of Bucharest has decided to cancel all travels of their employees and students to risk areas and to temporary stop travels abroad which can be postponed.

Preventive measures are essential to avoid contracting the COVID-19 virus . Hygiene is mandatory and efficient and a responsible response to current worldwide situation could help avoid and decrease natural anxiety associated with this context.

Cancel the trips to other places to avoid spreading the COVID-19 virus to family members, to the elderly or any other person with whom you might interact.

Keep in mind that you may endanger health or even the life of medically vulnerable people, if you have and spread the COVID-19 virus.

Shorten your travel period, if travels are quite urgent and follow releases and recommendations of authorized sources.

Try to stay at least 1 meter away from people around you, on the street, in the public transport, in the stores.

If avoiding crowds isn’t possible, one should wear protective masks. Make sure you have at home or on you, as may be the case, the following products:  alcohol or chlorine based disinfectant, disinfectant tissues, single use napkins.

When going home or to some other place, you should first wash your hands with water and soap, for at least 20 seconds, insisting on areas between the fingers and the hands wrists.

Control reflexive movements to touch your face, eyes, mouth, nose, if hands have not been cleaned recently.

Leave your shoes and top clothes you wear, in the entrance hall or at the entrance, by the door. Disinfect shoes soles.

Wherever you may be, wash your hands often or use available disinfectant products.

Every few hours, ventilate your work space and home. In the beginning or at the end of your activity, clean the surfaces, keyboard, mobile phone using alcohol or chlorine based disinfectants.

Although a vaccine or treatment tested as effective has not yet been identified, there are known situations in which people who had contracted the COVID-19 virus have been treated and cured, so maintaining a balanced immunity may prevent disease and help the fight of the organism with this virus.  Here can be found some measures to maintain or balance the organism’s immunity.

Don’t panic, don’t be scared.  Ask for specialist advice either online or by phone:  family doctor, specialist doctor, pharmacist  etc, if there’s any doubt about a possible contracting of the virus or how to take the medication.

Try to stay home 14 days, without travelling even for short distances. Since not everyone is aware of the risk they cause if they are infected, if no quarantine or self-isolation is respected, you may get sick getting in touch with such people. Limit the risk by staying home, as much as possible.

Please contact the Coordination and monitoring of the situation regarding the Coronavirus COVID-19 group of the University of Bucharest at info.covid@unibuc.ro, if you need to request additional information.