The Monash vice-chancellor revealed on Sunday that a male, part-time university employee is among the confirmed cases and 'to the best of our knowledge he is fine'.
A Monash University staff member is among the confirmed coronavirus cases in Australia, the university's vice-chancellor revealed on Sunday.and instructed students not to come on campus until mid-March, vice-chancellor Margaret Gardner confirmed a male, part-time Monash employee had been diagnosed with the new coronavirus.
Students will not attend classes on Monash University's Clayton campus until two weeks after originally planned."He is a member of staff who’s not full-time employed with us, and so we don’t see him frequently on campus, but we understand he is fine and we wish him all the best."About 80,000 students study at Monash's six Victorian campuses, including 27,000 international students.Students were scheduled to return on March 2, but an email sent out late Friday afternoon said the return date had been pushed back to March 9 due to the "unprecedented and evolving situation".Ms Gardner, who has been Monash vice-chancellor since 2014, said the university's senior team met last Sunday to consider their response to coronavirus."We started looking at the implications of this for our students - the problems it may cause for them in terms of them not being able to travel, being delayed in getting to Australia, having quarantine restrictions and the like," Ms Gardner said.Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan said on Saturday he would work with Universities Australia over the coming days to help students affected by the government'sincluding providing online studies and delaying the start of courses. The Group of Eight, which represents Australia's leading research universities, said in a statement on Sunday that it understood the government's ban but "we also regret the effect this virus outbreak is having on one of the world's leading university systems". All Group of Eight universities had offered international students options, including deferring, onilne study and negotiating study plans, the statement said.Monash students' traditional week-long "SWOTVAC", or class-free study period before exams, will be shortened to three days, drawing criticism from the Monash Student Association. However, Ms Gardner insisted the shortening "doesn't delay any other part of what students do, it doesn't delay their progression at all". Students living on Monash campuses have also been asked to limit their use of public spaces at the university and avoid gathering in large groups. Victoria's first confirmed coronavirus case was a Chinese man in his 50s. The second was a man in his 60s whoWith Melissa Cunningham
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