To all our alumni,
I want to send my best wishes to you and your loved ones at this increasingly challenging time. Our alumni family is incredibly important to us and I know you will be facing unprecedented changes in your life just as we are here at the University. Please be assured that we are using all the resources and expertise at our disposal in the global fight against coronavirus (Covid-19). You can read more about that here.
When we launched Aberdeen 2040 on Founders’ Day on 10 February, only six weeks ago, it was not by chance that the first of the 20 commitments we made as a University was to ‘care for the wellbeing, health and safety of our diverse community, supporting and developing our people to achieve their full potential’. In the immediate short term this has meant completing a rapid transition to home working for nearly everyone in the University, both students and staff. That brings with it both practical and psychological challenges and as a community we have worked hard to acknowledge and address both of those challenges, and that work will continue.
We are absolutely determined to ensure the continuity of the education of our students in these new circumstances and it has been heartening to see the energy and commitment of everyone involved in the rapid shift to online teaching and assessment. There will be some bumps along the road, of course, but everyone is ensuring as smooth a transition as possible and to support our students, whatever their needs.
Unfortunately, we have needed to postpone our summer graduation ceremonies but we will do our utmost to ensure that the newest members of our alumni family have the graduation experience that they deserve as soon as we are able to provide it.
I also wanted to give my sincerest thanks to our alumni who are contributing to the global response to coronavirus (Covid-19), from the frontline healthcare workers who risk their own health and safety to ensure ours, to the key workers in industries without which we would cease to function, to the education providers who are caring so well for those key workers’ children.
Many of you will also be contributing positively by helping the elderly and the vulnerable in your community, and that cannot be commended highly enough. As a fellow alum of Aberdeen, one of the things that has impressed me immensely as Principal & Vice-Chancellor is the altruism shown by our alumni in their support of the University and each other, and so I have no doubt you will be doing much to support your local communities.
Finally, I wanted to remind you that our Development & Alumni Relations team is working as normally as possible under our new work at home arrangement and will be reaching out to you in the coming weeks to support you in new and creative ways at a time when direct social contact has never been more limited.
Wherever you are in the world, I truly hope that you and yours stay safe and well.
Yours sincerely,
Professor George Boyne
Principal & Vice-Chancellor