The AIT Coronavirus Task Force meets daily.
December 31, 2021
Since January of 2020, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis has spread across the world. The situation in Thailand was very stable in the summer of 2020--with a minor outbreak in December of that year—and all the way through the early part of 2021. Unfortunately, a fierce wave hit Thailand in April, but things are slowly improving. Meanwhile, many places around the world are still heavily affected.
AIT took action very early one year ago to make sure the campus is safe. We formed the AIT Coronavirus Task Force at the end of January 2020 to monitor the crisis, both in general and specifically on how it affects the institute. The Task Force has been devising policies, measures and advice, and has kept the AIT community informed through a dedicated Intranet column—with links to the Thai Government public health websites—and through frequent emails. Following the declaration of National Emergency by the Thai government since the Spring of 2020, contingency operational plans were put in place, strict measures were imposed on AIT campus, and donated masks were issued to the entire AIT community.
On March 18, 2020, AIT officially closed, following the policy announced by the Thai Government, and all face-to-face classes were cancelled for the rest of that Spring Semester to move to interactive instruction. About half of the 1400 students chose to remain at AIT, with the other half, including exchange students from around the world, going back to their home country or their home in Thailand. All students were able to learn via interactive online instruction. Final exams and theses defense were online also. Those who were scheduled to graduate during the summer have been able to do so. Unfortunately, the May 2020 Graduation Ceremony was cancelled—but a good number participated in the December 2020 graduation exercises.
On August 1, 2020, AIT resumed normal operation, and Fall Semester started on August 4, 2020. The COVID-19 Task Force continues to ensure that health is the No. 1 priority at AIT. Those overseas students who were not able to join us in residence on campus took classes online. AIT faculty and staff have worked very hard to ensure that our online education is running smoothly, with more innovative interactive instruction available in Hybrid Instruction mode in Smart Modified Classrooms. In addition, AIT’s staff and students are devising creative ways to involve online students in student life, so that they get a sense of AIT residential education. Therefore, with new technology and methodology, AIT “has not missed a beat”, and Graduation Ceremony took place on December 18, 2020.
On August 21, 2020, the Thai Government—which has been extremely helpful with facilitating the processing of the entry to Thailand of our overseas students, approved AIT as an official Organizational Quarantine (OQ) site, with Thammasat University Hospital as our medical partner. Our OQ operates with strict safety and health guidelines overseen by the Thai Government. On September 13, 2020, our first overseas students to take advantage of our AIT OQ arrived, and they are still steadily coming into our OQ. To date, we have over 350—including many new Fall 2021 overseas students—who have taken advantage of the AIT OQ facility. In late November 2020, we even started to admit some Thammasat University overseas students into our OQ, and that has gone smoothly also. But AIT will always maintain strict vigilance on managing the OQ and ensuring that our students and our community are safe.
After the new wave came to Thailand in April 2021, AIT once again imposed strict measures to keep the community safe, and classes ended successfully online at the end of April 2021. The Graduation Ceremony could not take place in-person, so an online video ceremony was held on May 28, with almost 200 students graduating. Unfortunately, the case numbers continued to be high in Thailand all through the Fall Semester of 2021, and no in-person classes were possible. And the Graduation Exercises on December 21 had to take place online also.
Unfortunately, the Omicron variant hit the world, and Thailand too, in December, so that the January 2022 Spring Semester instruction will not be able to be in person until possibly the end of January. Online classes will continue starting on January 10, 2022.
AIT was included by the Thai Government in the vaccine campaign for education institutions, and after obtaining assistance from some other channels also, an overwhelming number of our faculty and students—new and continuing—and staff and families—whether Thai or Non-Thai—have been vaccinated by now. AIT has worked very hard to even ensure that most of our community has received third shot boosters, or about to receive them. Thammasat Hospital has been of great help, and contractors and concessionaires were included also. Unfortunately, positive cases started to occur in the Spring on campus—but other than sadly two contractor deaths, all others have recovered. We are so well covered on the vaccine front that vaccine mandates will likely be implemented whenever we do open the Campus.
As of the end of 2021, the campus is relatively safe and containment remains very rigorous. The COVID pandemic is ever evolving, and the effect of the Omicron variant is uncertain at this point, but we will have to be vigilant and monitor the situation.