This morning, the Basque government health department has decided to extend the suspension of face-to-face teaching activity from tomorrow, 13th March, to 27th March (both inclusive) to all sites on the Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa campuses of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). Furthermore, the suspension of face-to-face classes on the Álava campus is extended to the same date.

Faced with this decision, which now affects around 44,500 students (8,000 in Álava, now joined by 25,000 in Bizkaia and 11,500 in Gipuzkoa), the Basque public university is also to extend the implementation of teaching alternatives, with the aim of assuring all students the proper maintenance of their education.

Therefore, as is already the case on the Álava campus, non-teaching university activity will continue as normal in all the buildings on the Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa campuses. Teaching and research staff and administration and service staff are also reminded to follow the specific recommendations for action drawn up by the health department at their workplace:

http://www.euskadi.eus/nuevo-coronavirus-covid-19/

The UPV/EHU rector's office remains in constant touch with the Basque government health and education departments to deal with this situation. Moreover, as of last Tuesday afternoon, a special website has been set up to provide the university community with all the news, recommendations, latest developments and clarifications regarding coronavirus and its effects on all aspects of university activity. The UPV/EHU also reminds people that, depending on the measures taken, each site (faculty or school) has drawn up its own plan of action, in line with the specific features of their different courses, and is informing students of the specific details of how teaching is to be provided online.

In the light of this new measure, the rector of the UPV/EHU, Nekane Balluerka, has made the following statement: "All the public, including of course all those of us who make up the Basque public university community, must act with extreme responsibility. The stopping of teaching activity, a measure taken by the Basque government, reflects the seriousness of the pandemic we are confronting. I urge everybody to abide strictly and responsibly by the recommendations made by the authorities, adding a personal reflection: the solution to this problem lies only in each and every one of us. Our personal behaviour is what will help decisively to spread or mitigate the effects of this crisis. On a strictly academic level, the University of the Basque Country will do everything necessary to carry on teaching activities on our sites by alternative means and we will work hard to achieve this goal.