UNAM will receive more than 400,000 on-site students after two and a half years of the pandemic

Published August 8th, 2022

After two years and five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) is ready to receive more than 400 thousand students who will begin the new school year this coming Monday, August 8, in a 100% on-site manner. UNAM informed that students will begin their activities in schools, institutes, faculties, and centers throughout the country.

According to UNAM’s Secretary General, Leonardo Lomelí Venegas, the return to campus is safe since it is expected to be certain that students are vaccinated against COVID-19. Likewise, they have tried to work on the necessary measures so that the on-campus return is extremely safe.

Lomelí Venegas commented that all students are anxious to return to the facilities because there are those who will meet their schools or their classmates for the first time in person, as well as more than 42,000 teachers. It is worth remembering that the last day of classes “officially” was March 13, 2020, since weeks later the authorities confirmed the first SARS-CoV-2 virus infection.

He also clarified that measures will be respected in order to guarantee the safety of students and teachers, for example, that classrooms have the best ventilation conditions and the use of masks in closed spaces.

He reiterated that: “The University Commission for the Attention of the Coronavirus Emergency considers it viable to return in person, because although we are coming out of an outbreak, it is evident that the lethality of the disease has decreased, which gives hope that we are really entering a new normality”.

The College of Sciences and Humanities (CCH) carried out a protocol for the return to classes for the 2023-1 semester, which includes measures such as:

Placement of alcohol-based gel strategically.

Use of masks in all areas of the school.

Promoting adequate ventilation of enclosed spaces

Completion of vaccination schedules against COVID-19.

Staying home if any symptoms related to the disease are present

Seek medical and laboratory care to confirm the diagnosis.

On the other hand, Mr. Lomelí Vanegas recalled the inauguration of two new undergraduate programs: Tourism and Sustainable Development, at the Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores (ENES) Unidad León; and Mathematics for Development, at the ENES Juriquilla. In addition, new facilities will be put into operation at the National School of Languages, Linguistics, and Translation, as well as at the National School of Earth Sciences.

The official said that the pandemic made it possible to see the potential of distance education, for which reason activities for learning, dissemination, and popularization of science, culture, and art will be maintained in this modality. Finally, he expressed his gratitude for the trust placed in UNAM, “the oldest university in the country, one of the most important in the Spanish-speaking world and which has played an outstanding role in the construction of modern Mexico,” he said in a press release.

On the other hand, it was informed that the 34 thousand newly admitted high school students will start classes on Monday, August 29, since the results of the exam will be published on August 19, together with the results of the Metropolitan Commission of Public Institutions of Higher Secondary Education (Comipems) carried out during two weekends in June.