Universities adjust to life without Covid restrictions

The spring semester has started without masks and Covid certificate requirements at the University of Lausanne, after the Swiss government lifted most pandemic measures. Many other universities are doing the same.

Thousands of students started back in Lausanne and elsewhere on Monday, but for many of them campus life will be different. They are no longer required to show a Covid certificate, which indicates if a person is vaccinated, has tested negative or recovered from Covid-19, for lectures and lab classes. Mask requirements have also been lifted in many cases, as can be seen in the video above.

Certificate and mask restrictions were introduced at universities last September to ensure a safe return to on-site teaching after a period of distance learning and campus shutdowns due to the pandemic.

The changes for the spring semester come after the Swiss government lifted most Covid-19 restrictions, including certificate and most mask requirements, from February 17, after the record levels of infections triggered by the Omicron variant but didn’t lead to a spike in hospitalisations.

Relief at University of Lausanne

The University of Lausanne (UNIL) is among those which quickly decided to implement the new measures for the new semester. As can be seen in the Swiss public television RTS report, the sense of relief among many students is palpable.

Many other universities, including Lucerne, Basel and St Gallen, have also lifted measures, as have most universities of teacher education and applied sciences.

However, hygiene measures such as washing hands and social distancing apply. Students are also free to wear masks if they prefer and masks are recommended where social distancing is difficult.

Zurich unis remain more cautious

The University of Zurich is taking a more cautious approach. A mask mandateExternal link remains in place for the moment for courses that are part of the regular curriculum and are on-site.

And at the prestigious federal technology institute ETH Zurich, masks are still required in certain settings, like meetings, in lecture halls and in seminar rooms. This is to protect entire teams from being infected at the same time, as well as vulnerable individuals, saidExternal link the ETH Zurich in a statement.

Swiss universities are not alone in returning or soon returning to some sort of normality: in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands this is also the case, but in neighbouring Germany many students are still facing a ‘corona’ semester.