Dear colleagues,
We are entering the last weeks before the vacation period. By now, I believe most of you have already planned your vacation together with your closest manager and if not please make sure to do so.
Currently, we are in the exam period of this semester. Despite that alternative examinations have been introduced in some courses, the majority of the exams will be given as written exams, which are overseen by examinators, other faculty and PhD students. The President Sigbritt Karlsson has decided that also the re-exam period in the fall will be given using digital exams as well as alternative examination solutions. Here, I wish to point out that the PhD students as well as the faculty will act as examination supervisors, to make sure that no cheating takes place during the exams.
Talking about the future and especially the fall. How will KTH look like in August?
The president and her team have been planning for different scenarios that might take place in the fall. Our first priority is that period 1 should start as normal. However, as all of you know the outcome of the present situation is hard to predict. Thus, at ITM and KTH we are preparing for alternative scenarios in many ways. For example, under the lead of Anna Jerbrant, teachers at ITM have prepared risk analyses to understand what courses that are most critical to find alternative solutions for. Here, it is clear that it is especially important to identify courses that include practical experiments and to develop strategies on how to run these courses so that the required learning outcomes can be met. Here, one course at the Department of Industrial Production has successfully been held in an alternative manner during period 4, which may serve as a good example for other courses at ITM.
I also wish to mention that the administrators under the lead of Christina Carlsson also are planning for alternative ways of receiving the almost 1600 (!) new students that are expected to begin their studies at ITM in the fall. Overall, I believe that it is very important that we communicate updates regarding how the new semester will start up both to employees at ITM and to all students. Here, we are lucky to have a strong communication team at ITM that will help us with this very important task!
Finally, I hope that many of you have joined the KTH ACTIVE TOGETHER event. As we said earlier, the purpose is both to stimulate to exercise and to communicate with each other. The team that I belong to is led by the PhD student Reinol Josef Companero Del Carmen (called RJ). We share different photos taken during our exercises including pictures of ourselves performing different exercises such as running, walking, hiking, weight lifting, etc., but also pictures on landscapes or animals we have seen during our exercises. For example, myself I have already seen moose, deer, hares and squirrels as well as beautiful sunsets during my exercises. The participation in this event has certainly made me being more active than before and I hope you have had the same experience!
/Pär Jönsson, Head of the ITM School