December 25, 2020
To: Current Hosei University students, their parents and guardians, and prospective students preparing for entrance exams
Classes in the 2021 Academic Year (Update No. 1)
Yuko Tanaka
President, Hosei University
As previously notified, during the current (2020) academic year, Hosei University has carefully monitored developments with regard to Covid-19 while constantly considering and determining how best to run classes and set rules for campus access to enable students to enjoy a student experience that is as normal as possible.
During the current academic year, we have prioritized the health and safety of everybody studying and working at this university, holding most classes online. All our faculty and staff members have focused on improving the quality of these classes, asking the students for their cooperation as they do so. At the same time, for part of the spring semester and all of the fall semester, we also offered in-person classes for those courses best suited to such classes (such as those involving seminars, practical training, and skills practice), taking thorough measures to prevent infection.
In addition to these measures, students took the lead in doing what they could to improve the university experience for first-year students, who had been unable to attend campus since joining the university. In the fall semester, they held events on campus to welcome new students, as well as the annual university festivals (at the Ichigaya and Koganei campuses), putting careful measures in place to prevent infection. Initiatives to hold such physical events on campus were virtually absent at other universities during this academic year. As far as we are aware, no infections have resulted from these in-person classes or events.
Thus, diverse and ambitious initiatives have been implemented within the university over the past year, both online and in-person (for a taste of these initiatives, please see the examples of entries, prize-winners, and the grand prize winner for the AY 2020 Practical Wisdom for Freedom Award). On the one hand, we have discovered the rich potential of online educational activities and, on the other, the essential value of opportunities to meet and interact with other people on campus. As a result of these experiences, I believe that both our students and our faculty and staff members have learned about and adopted a diverse range of approaches that will enable the university to survive the coronavirus crisis.
In the 2021 academic year, we will need to build on the experience and insights accumulated and shared during this past year to continue the challenge of sustaining educational and research activities. Today, I am writing to convey the first in a series of updates regarding our policies for holding classes during the 2021 academic year. I will provide more details of our policies later, but the information I would like to pass on today is as below.
——————Policies for Holding Classes during AY 2021 (Update No. 1) ——————
Classes during the 2021 academic year will be held basically in-person, while implementing all measures possible to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus infection and taking the situation within the wider society into account. Preparations for holding these classes are currently in progress.
As we prepare, our intention is to make a positive effort to design classes flexibly, having considered the characteristics of each curriculum or course. This will include starting hybrid classes that combine in-person and online classes, HyFlex classes that enable in-person classes to be simultaneously streamed online, and on-demand classes.
During the 2020 academic year, we have built up a diverse range of knowledge through experience, including understanding of different class formats. In the 2021 academic year, we will make the best possible use of this experience, and further improve the quality of our online education.
————————————————————————————————————————
As you know, media reports state that the coronavirus pandemic is currently continuing to spread in Japan, as in other countries, and a critical situation has now developed within Japan’s medical system in particular. At this point in time it is impossible to adequately predict how Japan as a society will fare from April 2021 onward. From now on, therefore, we will have to monitor and evaluate changes in the situation to determine specific policies for classes and other activities in the next academic year, and how to put them into practice. But, whatever the situation may be, Hosei University will invest maximum ingenuity and effort in ensuring that during the 2021 academic year, as in previous years, students can enjoy the most fulfilling university experience possible in terms of both regular curriculum classes and extra-curricular activities. As we do so, we will continue to ask the students themselves to cooperate in various ways.
I would appreciate it if you would read the university’s subsequent updates to be issued going forward.
Finally, a word to students:
As we head into the winter vacation, please remain well aware of the current situation regarding the spread of infection, exercise the greatest possible caution, and ensure you act in ways that will reduce your risk of infection. In specific terms, this includes always wearing a mask when talking to people; avoiding eating or drinking with large groups of people, or for long periods; avoiding the “3 Cs”; and washing your hands frequently. Let’s all stay aware and work together so we can return to a life with minimal restrictions soon.
I am grateful to you all for your cooperation thus far, and I ask you please to keep it up.
I wish you all the best for 2021.