The Principal of the Universitat de València, the CRUE president, and the principals of the Universitat Jaume I, the Universitat Politècnica de València, and the University of Castilla-La Mancha held a videoconference with a Minister of Universities.

The participants to this meeting held remotely agreed with the minister about the need to show flexibility in work and, thus, reduce the impact of the situation on students’ academic development. Certain restrictions were inevitable and resulted from distance learning mode, which was brought about with the state of emergency to prevent the COVID-19 sanitary crisis.

Public universities, including the Universitat de València, informed a minister of their plans to ensure proper student training with the help of online methods.

The principals also stressed the need to minimise the presence of the university community members in the university facilities and buildings, which would serve as a safety measure and prevent the COVID-19 from spreading.

After the videoconference, the Principal of the Universitat de València noted that “people are of the highest importance in this case: their health and training, as well as scientific research, university activities that should go on, and all the other services that help to sustain the teaching and learning in a situation of sanitary crisis which does seriously affect us.”

The Universitat de València has adopted the calendar of extraordinary measures which have arised from the declared state of emergency and the orders of the ministers and autonomous communities (more information can be found here: (http://links.uv.es/aRV8gnD). As such, a set of measures enhance those adopted on Friday 13 March before the state of emergency has been declared.

New measures presuppose the following:

1. Limit access to the university buildings, restrict the freedom of movement, and introduce meetings on remote or with special safety and health measures;
2. Modify the measures associated with the public service: all public services must be provided solely via the phone or in a remote mode;
3. Suspend the activities of the general registry and its branch offices.
4. Teaching will go remote, and new plans of distance work shall be developed, which leads to the necessary modification of the working schedule and turns;
5. The Universitat de València suspends the publications of calls for application and, thus, all administrative deadlines of the institution;
6. Proper measures are established to attend to especially vulnerable staff of the university and those whose got affected by the restricted freedom of movement;
7. Remove the postal services for internal communications, and, instead, generate all documentation in an electronic format; electronic signatures are preferred unless a specific situation requires a handwritten signature;
8. Design incidental plans to ensure the continuity of the university activities.

The complete resolution can be found following the link (the document is available in Valencian): http://links.uv.es/atkki7p

For now, all these measures shall be implemented on the level of management which strives to reduce the students and professors presence in the Universitat de València facilities starting from 23 March.

Having developed these measures, the Principal expressed her appreciation for the solidarity and devotion of the public service of the Universitat de València personnel. She emphasised their responsibility and generosity which contribute to proper functioning of the Universitat de València academic activity in such an unprecedented situation of the COVID-19 sanitary crisis.