President Bensaid announced that the University will be delaying the first day of classes by three weeks, citing concerns about the epidemiological situation in Morocco and uncertainty regarding the evolution of the situation in the coming weeks. The Fall semester is expected to start on the 21st of September, while the new student registration & orientation is scheduled to take place starting the 14th of September.
The postponement of the Fall semester by three weeks also means that the last day of classes is scheduled for the 31st of December, with final exams to be held between the 3rd and 10th of January 2021. Faculty will still be convocated on the 24th of August.
Four priorities set by the administration to guide its decisions
The President revealed that the university is placing an utmost importance on “the safety, health and healthcare, and more generally the well-being” of the AUI community. A continuity of the university’s policy to provide a safe environment for its staff, faculty and students on campus. The university will fully cover any staff, faculty or student who contracts the virus at AUI. Staff and faculty will also benefit from their salaries during the period.
The second priority that the University is setting is the constant monitoring of the evolution of the situation in Morocco given an unprecedented level of uncertainty. The President acknowledges that this situation should not impact the quality of education that the University offers, regardless of the teaching mode. A point shared in the third priority as well, with a focus on developing and supporting solutions that guarantee agility and adaptiveness.
The fourth priority lies in ensuring that the university grows despite the challenges of this pandemic, by developing and supporting initiatives that could yield a positive impact either internally or externally.
Investing together in training, certification, quality assurance, performance management, recognition, and risk management will be key to our strategy, while grit and resilience (on the part of all of us) will probably be our key success factors.
President Amine Bensaid, July 2020
Mode of teaching still uncertain
While the mode of teaching is still uncertain, one thing is: flexibility. The President has announced that each faculty member will decide on his/her own mode of teaching. All courses will be adopting a flipped classroom pedagogy (meaning that a student will study the course material by himself/herself – through videos, readings, etc.- and apply, discuss, debate during the class session). Freshmen will attend classes face-to-face while other students will most likely attend online classes.
More details are expected to be shared by the end of August, especially with the recent deterioration of the epidemiological situation in Morocco and the lack of details regarding many aspects regarding the mode of teaching that will eventually be adopted.
