Advanced technologies and safety - this is how Franklin University is getting ready to start the new academic year

The spread of coronavirus throughout the world runs at different speeds: a challenge that has not been easy to deal with, particularily for the university education sector - morerso for Franklin as many of its students are international and live on campus with private - but also shared environments.

With more than 50 years of activity in the area, the university has in fact decided not to deny its identity - and to face the new academic year always with the academic approach of the American matrix which is guaranteed not only by compliance with hygiene and health regulations imposed by the canton, but also by the aid of advanced organisational technologies and methodologies.

The mandatory use of the SwissCovid app will facilitate (for staff, teachers and students) the tracing of contacts within the structure - the lessons will be carried out through a hybrid model that will combine the use of the lessons digitally - with a experience enhanced by the installation of new cameras, microphones and interaction platforms with teachers - presence in the classroom will always be planned through the simulation software of the air quality created in Switzerland, called SIMARIA.

This configuration, which will already be actively tested during the month of August and will facilitate, through a rotation mechanism, the distribution of students and teachers in the closed spaces and the possibility, therefore, of maintaining, within them, the correct social distances of 2 meters and always with the obligation of a mask.

Although many of the members will come from the Schengen area and from across Switzerland, the university is equipped to manage arrivals from high risk areas, according to the indications of the DECS. In fact, students arriving from countries at risk will have to carry out a quarantine period in a completely dedicated campus building, and will receive meals from the canteen service along with assistance and health tests directly in their apartments and rooms through the help of online platforms.

Sara Steinert Borella, Vice Chancellor and Dean of Academic Affairs of the university concludes - ‘Starting from the indications issued by DECS and from the success with distance learning during the last semester - “we have developed a system that we are confident we can provide a safe and excellent working and learning environment, even to those who need to remain in isolation.”