The new period was announced on Sunday afternoon by Minister of Education Slob and Minister of Health Bruins. It is certainly not the last measure the cabinet will take, Bruins predicted.
Cafés and sports clubs also had to close immediately. Student associations probably also fall under this new policy. Many associations had already canceled their events and meetings.
One and a half meters
Everyone is still advised to stay at home as much as possible. You can do your shopping, as long as people try to keep a distance of one and a half meters away from each other. Hoarding is not necessary for anything, says the cabinet.
Education will continue, although improvisation will be needed with distance learning and telephone consultation hours. Solutions must also be found for exams and internships.
The UT focuses on digital education, says spokesperson Laurens van der Velde. ‘The precise form is still a bit unclear at the moment. The study programs are exploring the options this week. It will not be streamlined from the first second, but from next week education at the UT - although digitally - will be fully operational again.’
The cabinet has asked universities and colleges to pay attention to prospective students: access to higher education should not be endangered if they miss selection days or study choice checks due to the corona crisis.
Research
Incidentally, Van Engelshoven and Slob wrote on Friday about the consequences of the corona measures for higher education: ‘The research will be able to continue, the buildings will not be closed.’
However, the same guidelines apply to scientists as to the rest of the Netherlands: if possible, they should stay at home. So they can only go to work if their research really requires it.
The network capacity should not be a problem for working from home, ICT organization SURF said.
