“It continues to be our policy to deliver a high-quality, in-person teaching and learning experience. Last term we offered a fully in-person experience and we firmly plan to have the same this term.

“The health and safety of our students, staff and the wider community remains our priority. We want to manage our teaching and learning environment as safely as possible, given rising infection rates both locally within North East England and nationally.

“We have, therefore, introduced temporary Covid-controls for the next two weeks as we manage the current wave of Omicron infections. This will enable a short transition period to test on arrival and assess the prevalence and degree of required self-isolation in our community.

“In week one, all labs and practical classes will continue with existing robust Covid mitigation measures, and all other teaching will take place online. In week two, we will reintroduce in-person small to medium sized group teaching while larger group teaching will remain online. We fully expect to revert to full in-person teaching following this transition period.”