The Border's two universities have vastly different approaches for a return to face to face learning in 2022.
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Charles Sturt University doesn't have a stance on whether a vaccination is required for a return to its campuses, including Albury, but has been strongly encouraging staff and students to get vaccinated.
"Charles Sturt University will continue to be guided by government and health orders and consult with staff and students in our response to the pandemic," a CSU spokesperson said.
However, La Trobe University will require anyone who visits its campuses to be fully vaccinated by early December.
The university, which has a regional campus in Wodonga, released a roadmap this week to reopening for on-site operations in line with national vaccine thresholds.
In a two-staged approach, La Trobe will firstly encourage and support staff and students to get the jab as soon as possible, with vaccination leave available for staff.
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Then in stage two the university will mandate that anyone that plans to be on site, contractors included, will have to have received both doses to do so.
La Trobe Associate Professor in Public Health Deborah Gleeson revealed a vaccination hub will be set up at its Bundoora campus, with similar arrangements to be explored for regional sites.
"The staged process is really important because at this stage the majority of the population wants to be vaccinated, but a lot of people have only been eligible fairly recently for the vaccine," she said.
"During this stage, while there are still potential barriers for accessing vaccines and the rollout is still getting up to scale, it's really important that we actually support people to get vaccinated and provide those opportunities and make them available."
Ms Gleeson said the early December deadline could change because it would need to be on track with the Victorian roadmap to reopening.
"This is really a flexible plan that could be readjusted depending on how things go we can change the timing if we need to to accommodate various contingencies," she said. "There are some details that are still to be worked out and we're very committed to introducing this in a fair and transparent way that involves stakeholders.
"As a public health expert it's very pleasing to see La Trobe being a front runner on this issue."
Victoria Ellis
Victoria Ellis grew up on the Border and loves reporting for her home community. She is a University of Wollongong Journalism graduate. In 2018 Victoria was awarded the Bruce Gordon Scholarship for Journalism and completed a 10 week internship with WIN News Illawarra. In 2019 she was awarded The Border Mail's Cameron Thompson Scholarship, where she completed a three week internship, before taking up ongoing employment in 2021.
Victoria Ellis grew up on the Border and loves reporting for her home community. She is a University of Wollongong Journalism graduate. In 2018 Victoria was awarded the Bruce Gordon Scholarship for Journalism and completed a 10 week internship with WIN News Illawarra. In 2019 she was awarded The Border Mail's Cameron Thompson Scholarship, where she completed a three week internship, before taking up ongoing employment in 2021.
Beau Greenway
Beau Greenway is a journalist at The Border Mail. He likes to tell the stories of great people in our communities. Email: beau.greenway@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Beau Greenway is a journalist at The Border Mail. He likes to tell the stories of great people in our communities. Email: beau.greenway@austcommunitymedia.com.au
