COVID-19: Faculty of Education Updates: Events

March 26, 2020 | 4:45 pm

Convocation Ceremonies

As we know, in-person spring convocation ceremonies will not be taking place at UBC-Vancouver or UBC-Okanagan. President Ono has posted a letter to the community indicating that a postponed in-person ceremony for the Class of 2020 will be announced when possible, degrees will be conferred and mailed to those who applied and meet requirements, and a virtual ceremony will take place. Read more here: president.ubc.ca/letter-to-the-community/2020/03/26/spring-graduation.


March 13, 2020 | 1:50 pm

The Faculty continues to closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation.

In our continuing efforts to slow the transmission of the virus, we are suspending Faculty-sponsored events that are not part of courses or academic requirements, and that have an expected attendance of 50 people or more. At the unit level, you may decide whether such events should be cancelled or simply postponed.

The suspension is in effect immediately, and will apply to all events scheduled between now until the end of April. The Faculty’s COVID-19 Rapid Response Team will re-assess the situation weekly, and will provide updates as the situation evolves.

The Faculty urges you to be extremely circumspect in planning events, such as receptions or celebrations, to coincide with spring convocation. To be clear, the Faculty is not in a position to comment upon whether convocation will continue as planned; the Faculty is simply advising you to not plan an event at that time.

Organizers of events with an expected attendance of fewer than 50 people are required to consider alternate ways of holding the events (e.g., hosting in large spaces offering sufficient flexibility for social distancing, or hosting online versions of events).


March 12, 2020 | 6:30 pm

We are working to determine the best course of action with regard to gatherings scheduled between now and July. To assess risk, we ask anyone who is organizing an event with more than 50 people at any UBC campus, venue, field centre or the like, to submit event details here. We will follow up with organizers to discuss available options, and to help mitigate medical, epidemiological, financial, and reputational risks.

Health Canada’s risk-informed approach to making decisions for mass gatherings during COVID-19 can be found here.