advertisement
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Reddit

In writing: the UJ mandatory vaccination policy

On 25th November the University of Johannesburg (UJ) Council made COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for access to all school campuses and facilities.

While that is now common knowledge it is only today that UJ has released a media statement about this topic for the public as well as students, educators and even outside parties to observe.

“This means that staff, postdoctoral research fellows and students will need to provide UJ with their vaccination status (e.g., first vaccination completed or fully vaccinated) before gaining access to any campus or facility. These measures also apply to ad hoc contractors, identified stakeholders and visitors,” reads part of the media release.

The last section about visitors and contractors is especially important as universities are cultural hubs which are frequented by many not directly involved in academia. This release puts into writing a clear fact: if you want to visit UJ for any reason, you must be vaccinated.

South Africa is experiencing a worrying spike of COVID-19 infections seemingly off of the back of the newly discovered omicron variant. In the last 24 hours 11 125 new cases were reported in the country with more than three million recorded infections now observed in South Africa.

Back to UJ specifically and those with umbrage to the mandatory vaccination may voice their concerns, but these may be ignored.

“Exemptions, based on medical or religious grounds, will be considered. It is important to note, however, that UJ will balance the rights of individuals against the collective rights of the broader University and the surrounding community. As the collective rights take precedence, the rights of individuals may be limited, in terms of section 36 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996,” the media release continues.

More information about this new vaccination policy is said to be coming soon but the aforementioned release can be read here. The policy can also be accessed here as a PDF but it is date 19th November and approved on 25th November, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see changes to it in the near future given the fact that the nature of the pandemic changes so often.

The policy is surprisingly sparse at just six pages. Interestingly UJ makes many points about why in-person education is so important when online alternatives are so prevalent and free to use. The university points out the need for certain skills to be taught in person, hands-on training, access to facilities not available at home, socio-economic circumstances and more.

There will always be a need for students to be physically at a school for various reasons and hard stances like mandatory vaccination are one of the only ways to ensure it can be done safely.

advertisement

About Author

advertisement

Related News

advertisement