Fortunately, the Dutch government announced that education on campus is possible again as of today. How this is translated to your Honours+ experience, is described in the email below.

H+ Workshops:
As of 01.02.2022, all H+ workshops will take place on campus again, at TAPIJN X building. Students are required however to wear a facemask at all times, also when seated.
https://edlab.nl/excellence/honoursplus/current-honoursplus-students/honours-workshops/

Team meetings:
Even though all UM’s education will be online for the duration of period 3, team meetings can take place already on campus, if students are present in Maastricht and prefer it. We will leave the way you organize your teamwork to your own judgement. Feel free to decide yourself in agreement with your H+ Supervisor, if you rather meet online or on campus.
In case you wish to book a room at EDLAB, please send us an email via honoursplus@maastrichtuniversity.nl.

EDLAB’s TAPX building is open weekdays only:
Monday: 08.30-18.00 hrs
Tuesday: 08.30-18.00 hrs
Wednesday: 08.30-20.00 hrs
Thursday: 08.30-18.00 hrs
Friday: 08.30-18.00 hrs

H+ Informal Events:
The first informal event is coming up, and this will take place on campus as well. If you want to hang out with fellow honours students, while playing board games and enjoying pizza, make sure to sign up on time for our Boardgame Night, on 03.02.2022.
Sign up via: https://edlab.nl/slottr/h-game-night/

H+ Midterm Evening Session:
On 23.02.22 and 24.02.22 we are organizing your Midterm event, during which we will pair up each team with an expert to present their progress and gain input from via a consultation.
A schedule will be drawn up which team needs to be present on which evening. In case you have a very specific preference, feel free to let us know before February 1st, so that we can take that into consideration. Due to the fact that we expect issues when organizing such an event on campus (distance rule, attendance conflicts when people need to be in quarantine etc), we will organize this event online. More information about the actual setup of the event will follow soon.

H+ Care Package:
In case students wish to make use of different components of the H+ Care Package, please feel free to still do so. Would you like to have a session with our wellbeing coach Adina Petre, or sign up for the Walking Buddies? https://edlab.nl/excellence/honoursplus/current-honoursplus-students/honoursplus-care-package/

If you are on campus: follow the basic rules!
By now you can recite them in your sleep, but we’ll repeat them one more time:

• In case of symptoms, stay at home and get tested at the Municipal Public Health Service (GGD). Even if you have been vaccinated.
• If you test positive, stay at home. Even if you have been vaccinated.
• Face masks are mandatory if you’re moving around our buildings.
• 1.5 metres is a safe distance to keep from one another (education is exempted from the mandatory 1.5 metre-distance rule).
• Don’t shake hands and wash them often and thoroughly.
• Cough and sneeze into your elbow.
• Indoors, provide fresh air and ventilate.
• Read more on the website of the Dutch government: https://www.government.nl/…/basic-rules-for-everyone.

Self-test, self-test, self-test
When you come to campus, we ask you to take a self-test twice a week. You can still order the self-tests free of charge via zelftestonderwijs.nl. On campus, free self-tests can be taken from the containers found at every building’s reception. In case of a positive self-test, make an appointment with the Municipal Public Health Service and do not come to campus.

On the brink of everyone’s Christmas holidays, the Netherlands is in lockdown and we feel we need to update you a bit further on the effects of the current lockdown situation on the Honours+ programme.

We had hoped that new Covid regulations would no longer affect education, but unfortunately the situation is the way it is, and we will of course do our best to guarantee our students and staff the best experience possible this year.

Fortunately, our programme is a rather flexible one; we can switch back and forth to offline and online depending on new restrictions and relaxations of Covid regulations.

The Dutch Government will review the Covid situation again on January 3^rd and see if education might open up again as of January 10^th.  Still, we would like to inform you all already now before Christmas, how we will proceed in the first few weeks of January, since we understand that everyone would need to get themselves organized.

We will mention in bullet points the different aspects of the Honours+ programme that will look different in the upcoming weeks, than what we initially planned when sending you the H+ handbook.

Honours+ workshops:
Since several faculties have decided/may yet decide to offer their education online during period 3, we may not expect our students to be all in Maastricht yet. Therefore, the workshops that are scheduled in January, will take place online.
Fortunately, our trainers are very experienced in providing online education and have adapted their workshops during the past two years to ensure interactive and inspiring sessions, even when hosted in an online environment.

• Debating skills, by Het Debatbureau: the session on 05.01.22 will take place online. We will review the situation again mid-January.
• Teamwork and Functioning Optimally, by Susanne Maris: the session on 31.01.22 will take place online. We will review the situation again mid-January.

All the other scheduled workshops take place after 01.02.2022, and we will review their scheduling as the new year progresses.

Team meetings:
All UM’s buildings will be closed during lockdown. For the duration of the lockdown, all meetings as a team or with your Supervisor present, can only take place online.

As soon as education no longer falls under lockdown regulations, teams may meet up again either at EDLAB or another UM building, or online, depending on everyone’s preferences and possibilities. If that is the case, you will receive an email from us as well.

H+ Care package:
The wellbeing sessions with Adina Petre can take place according to everyone’s own preferences. Feel free to contact Adina via adina@myinsights.eu in case you feel you would benefit from a bit more mental support.

H+ Supervisor workshops:
The H+ Supervisor workshop that is scheduled on January 26^th , will also take place online.
https://edlab.nl/excellence/honoursplus/honoursplussupervisors/

Events:
The H+ Intervision sessions are scheduled to take place at the end of February. We have to see how this situation develops itself, before we can make a final decision about if this event will take place on campus or online. You will be kept informed.

There is an informal event (H+ Board Game Night) scheduled on February 3^rd. At the moment, we are still counting on this to take place on site, but since this does not fall under education, it could potentially be canceled or transferred to online. You will be kept informed.

So, even though the first few weeks of the new year might look slightly different than we had hoped, we go into 2022 with an aim to be there to support each other, be tolerant and mindful towards each other, and you may count on H+ Central Management’s support where you might need it. We are just one virtual click, email or a telephone call away.

This evening, the Dutch government announced a 3-week period of “Evening Lockdown”. The situation, especially in Limburg, is dire, and even though there are not extra Corona measures touching higher education (for now), we would like to inform our students and Supervisors about the current situation and measures, and where it affects Honours+.

Long story short, education and therefore Honours+ can continue to take place on campus, such as team meetings and workshops (workshops in December can  be offered/attended hybrid as well). Nothing changes as far as that is concerned. But, we maintain 1.5m distance rule from each other. The educational rooms at EDLAB have been setup to facilitate this, but we would like to further express a wish to our community to adhere to this rule, also when you visit us for a team meeting.

f you are on campus: follow the basic rules!
By now you can recite them in your sleep, but we’ll repeat them one more time:

• In case of symptoms, stay at home and get tested at the Municipal Public Health Service (GGD). Even if you have been vaccinated.
• If you test positive, stay at home. Even if you have been vaccinated.
• Face masks are mandatory if you’re moving around our buildings.
• 1.5 m is a safe distance to keep from one another.
• Don’t shake hands and wash them often and thoroughly.
• Cough and sneeze into your elbow.
• Indoors, provide fresh air and ventilate.
• Read more on the website of the Dutch government: https://www.government.nl/…/basic-rules-for-everyone.

Self-test, self-test, self-test
When you come to campus, we ask you to take a self-test twice a week. You can still order the self-tests free of charge via zelftestonderwijs.nl. On campus, free self-tests can be taken from the containers found at every building’s reception. In case of a positive self-test, make an appointment with the Municipal Public Health Service and do not come to campus.

With the new measures, as announce by the Dutch government on 12.11.2021, our education and therefore Honours+ can continue to take place on campus, such as team meetings and workshops. Nothing changes as far as that is concerned.

However, with EDLAB’s building not being a faculty building, most of our staff will also have to work from home during the upcoming weeks. That might make it more difficult to book a room at our facility. But we will try to facilitate you as much as possible, so feel free to check in and see if you can use our spaces to meet.

If you are on campus: follow the basic rules!
By now you can recite them in your sleep, but we’ll repeat them one more time:

• In case of symptoms, stay at home and get tested at the Municipal Public Health Service (GGD). Even if you have been vaccinated.
• If you test positive, stay at home. Even if you have been vaccinated.
• Face masks are mandatory if you’re moving around our buildings.
• 1.5 metres is a safe distance to keep from one another (education is exempted from the mandatory 1.5 metre-distance rule).
• Don’t shake hands and wash them often and thoroughly.
• Cough and sneeze into your elbow.
• Indoors, provide fresh air and ventilate.
• Read more on the website of the Dutch government: https://www.government.nl/…/basic-rules-for-everyone.

Self-test, self-test, self-test
When you come to campus, we ask you to take a self-test twice a week. You can still order the self-tests free of charge via zelftestonderwijs.nl. On campus, free self-tests can be taken from the containers found at every building’s reception. In case of a positive self-test, make an appointment with the Municipal Public Health Service and do not come to campus.

On November 2nd, the Dutch government announced new Covid-19 measures. These basically involved more attention to adhering the basic rules.

• Have you tested positive for Covid? Then stay home and stay away from others. Even if they have already been vaccinated.
• Advice to maintain a 1.5 meters distance from other people.
• Do not shake hands with other people.
• Wash your hands often and thoroughly.
• Cough and sneeze into your elbow.
• Provide fresh air at home.

As of November 6th, it is again mandatory to wear facemasks in UM-buildings when not seated.

Due to the measures surrounding Covid-19, Honours+ will look slightly different in the coming period from previous years. Luckily however, with the recently announced relaxations of Covid measures, we can hopefully look forward to an Honours+ year in which most (if not all) programme components can take place on campus.

At the start of Honours+, most components of the programme, such as workshops and central/informal events are planned to take physically place at EDLAB’s Tapijn X building or at external venues, while others might be organized in an online setting, depending on the preferences of the participants (such as team meetings).

It is very important that you do a health check before coming to an onsite event, workshop or team meeting. You can do this by following the steps in this flow chart.
Stay home if that is the advice you get from the flow chart, and contact Central Management.

More information can be found on https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/safety-campus#whentocampus

Safety at UM venues
Naturally, the welfare, health and safety of students and staff, as well as the quality of education will be safeguarded and all government guidelines will be followed. When coming to the UM buildings, we urge you to observe all security measures as stated in UM’s safety protocol. Our Tapijn building X is equipped in accordance with the UM safety protocol. This means, among other things, that we take extra hygiene measures in and around the buildings.

Rules and safety at external venues
We kindly ask all our students and Supervisors to be mindful and understanding of the fact that the Honours+ programme is an extra-curricular programme. It is therefore often not possible for us to reserve UM venues for our events, because faculties need all available space now for education, but also due to the group size of our community. Most of the central events in the Honours+ programme are therefore organized at external venues.

We opt for on-site events where possible, because we have noticed how an entirely online year affected the community, student wellbeing, motivation, overall creativity and engagement, and we now wish to provide you with the best experience possible where we can. We hope that you appreciate the fact that we can bring our community back together, even though it will tie us to certain regulations and measures for the time being.

To be specific; even though the Honours+ events have an educational component, we will need to comply with the rules that apply to the external venue where the event is hosted, which as of September 25 may include access via the Digital COVID Certificate, when the venue is also at that moment accessible to other guests.

Of course, students who are unable to attend these events at external venues that require a Digital COVID Certificate, will be provided with an alternative, if they inform Honours+ Central Management Team on time.

More information about the Digital COVID Certificate and free Covid testing can be found here:

• https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/coronavirus-response/safe-covid-19-vaccines-europeans/eu-digital-covid-certificate_en
• https://afspraak.testenvoortoegang.org/evenement/type

Please be aware, the Corona crisis can always throw us an unexpected curveball, which changes things again. Keep an eye on your UM email for any (last-minute) changes in the programme related to the Corona crisis, and the practical implications that might bring to your Honours+ experience. Rest assured, we will do our utmost to guarantee an honours worthy experience.

Every time the Dutch Government releases new measures throughout the upcoming academic year, you can check this page to see how it affects your Honours+ experience. Of course you will also be informed via your UM student email.