University students resume campus life in Hainan

More than 11,700 students returned to campus life in 13 colleges and universities in tropical Hainan province on Saturday, after opening of schools was postponed for months due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

"Our university staff members checked temperature of each student, checked their health code, 18-day body temperature records and signature on letters of commitments as soon as they arrived," said Wang Hua, vice-president of the Haikou-based Qiongtai Normal University.

"We were moved that each of us were offered with a package of anti-epidemic items: thermometers, goggles, protective masks, disinfectant cotton tablets on buses that were specially arranged to pick us up at the airports, railway, port and bus terminals," Zhang Zeyu, a third-grade major of design at the university, said.

Returning students had to go through strict steps before entering the campus. At Hainan University, for instance, the measures included disinfection, temperature checks, code scanning and check-in at the college service point, health code and trip card verification and then taking a battery car or walking to their dormitory.

Qiu Fangting, a Haikou native majoring in computer and network security at the Hainan University, was happy to resume school life. "Although there are online classes, I think it's more interesting to have classes with my classmates at school," Qiu was quoted by hinews.cn as saying.

She said during the super long winter holiday, she seldom went out and gained weight due to limited physical exercise.

An official with the Hainan Provincial Department of Education said the students will continue to have online classes and offline teaching will gradually resume until the 14-day quarantine period expires.

All the university and college students, about 230,000 in total, are expected to return and resume on-campus classes in batches in the next 10 days, according to the arrangements by the provincial education authorities.

Local reports said the provincial education authorities have set up 10 supervision and inspection teams to plug any loopholes, consolidate measures and responsibilities for epidemic prevention and control in all colleges and universities across the province.

While students of graduation grades have returned to universities across the country, some institutions have issued notices asking non-graduation grade university students to continue online classes at home, due to the situation.

For instance, Quanzhou-based Huaqiao Unversity, Xiangtan-based Xiangtan University and Guangzhou-based Jinan University have announced that all non-graduation grade students will continue online classes at home and will not resume campus classes during this spring semester.