According to the latest announcement by the UK Government, lockdown restrictions will begin to be lifted in March throughout England. NCG Manchester and NCG Liverpool will reopen for face-to-face classes on 29th March.
In Ireland, the existing Level 5 restrictions have been extended at least until 5th April. We will keep monitoring the situation while following the Irish Government’s official advice.
NCG Manchester and NCG Liverpool reopened in September 2020. NCG Dublin reopened on the 7 th of December 2020, after the 6-week Irish lockdown.
All NCG courses will be running. The only difference is that we will be using a blended learning approach to minimise the number of fellow students you share a classroom with. Our main classes (15 hours per week) will be face to face, and skills classes (5 or 10 hours per week depending on your course) will be online.
We will be using blended learning. 15 hours per week for all college-based courses will be taught face to face. Skills classes which are taken as part of 20 or 25 hour courses will be taught online. This is to limit the number of classmates each student has contact with as part of our social distancing risk assessment.
Both residence and homestay accommodation options will be available. In Manchester and Liverpool, we recommend choosing residence at this time, and the residential halls we work with are within walking distance of the college so public transport can be avoided. In Dublin, the residence is a 60-minute bus journey from the school, whereas host families live closeby.
The residential halls strictly adhere to all official regulations and guidelines in terms of measures for the reduction of the risk of Covid-19 transmission. With regard to homestay, NCG will issue homestay hosts with clear guidance/advice for keeping their homes clean and share regular government updates with them on social distancing measures. We will avoid using those hosts who are in a high risk group and ensure any relevant personal medical information from students is shared with the relevant accommodation provider.
Guidance on self-isolation (when applicable) will also be provided to students, homestay hosts and residential accommodation providers if a student/host/staff member is displaying symptoms of Covid-19.
We will continue offering the airport transfer service via our trusted providers. To avoid taking public transport, we encourage all students to book this service.
We have made sure that our providers have stepped up their cleanliness measures and are following the most recent guidelines set out by the UK and Irish Governments (e.g. the driver must wear a face covering).
Students will have to wear a face covering when in the taxi and will be able to share the same taxi in very limited circumstances (e.g. if they are part of the same family and have been travelling together on the same plane).
Under-18 students from outside the EU are required to have medical insurance cover for the entirety of their stay. We strongly recommend that all students get travel and medical insurance cover for the entirety of their stay.
Travel and medical insurance can be purchased from NCG’s trusted partners. To ensure maximum flexibility, our partners allow for the dates of the insurance policies to be changed free of charge at any point prior to the start of the policy.
Medical insurance purchased through NCG’s trusted partner will NOT cover any medical or other expenses incurred, directly or indirectly, with relation to Covid-19.
You will have to bring a stock of face masks or other face covering with you, as they will have to be worn when taking a taxi, bus, tram, train, etc.
We also recommend that you pack some extra alcohol-based hand sanitizer to keep with you at all times, so that you can clean your hands even when water is not available.
We will not make it mandatory for students to wear a face covering when on the school premises, however students who wish to wear some form of face covering will be more than welcome to do so.
Wearing a face covering is currently compulsory in the UK and Ireland on all forms of public transport (e.g. buses, trams, trains, etc.) and it is recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that it is worn in those situations in which social distancing is not possible.
We therefore recommend that students equip themselves with face coverings before travelling. Further advice from the WHO on how to use face coverings can be found here: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/question-and-answers-hub/q-a-detail/q-a-on-covid-19-and-masks
UK: You will not need to self-isolate if you are travelling to England from one of the countries, territories or regions listed on the travel corridor list. You must have spent the last 10 days in one of these places.
If you visited somewhere that is NOT on the travel corridor list in the 10 days before your arrival in England (including a transit stop), you will still need to self-isolate. As of the 15th December 2020, you have two options for the duration of the self-isolation period:
IMPORTANT: You must declare on the passenger locator form which of the self-isolation options above you have chosen.
If the quarantine requirement is still in place when you arrive, you will be able to access our online classes while self-isolating. These online classes will be in addition to the face-to-face course you have booked and, even better, will be free of charge!
NCG has carried out a comprehensive risk assessment based on government guidance and regulations. Our key measures include:
Those NCG staff and homestay hosts who develop symptoms of COVID-19 will be asked to take an antigen test.
Information on what to do if you think you have coronavirus can be found here if you are in the UK:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/symptoms/
If you are in Ireland, you can find more information here: https://www2.hse.ie/coronavirus/
Please do not come to the college if you think you have coronavirus. Please call the college’s emergency phone – you can find the number on your lanyard.
Supermarkets will be open and there are several located close to the college and residence. Many restaurants are offering take-away services – a range of options are available on services such as Just Eat or Uber Eats.
Yes, restaurants and bars have now reopened with time limit and social distancing measures in place.
Yes, many of the UK and Ireland’s sights are outdoors in public spaces and can be visited. There are some restrictions on entering buildings, but they may have been lifted when the college reopens.
NCG has continued its social programme for our students studying online classes and it will continue when the colleges reopen with safety precautions in place.
You can apply for a study visa up to 3 months before your date of travel to Ireland. For more information on how to apply, visit: http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/Study
We understand this is a time of uncertainty and are offering flexibility to students unable to travel. If the college is closed or you can’t travel due to government restrictions in either the UK, Ireland or your home country, you can re-book your course for a later date.
NCG’s terms and conditions can be found here:
https://www.newcollegegroup.com/terms-conditions/
Additional terms and conditions for the current closure can be found here:
https://www.newcollegegroup.com/covid-19-terms-conditions/
Yes, we’ve had so much positive feedback from our online courses that we’ve decided to keep them indefinitely!
Because we understand the pressure and concerns felt by those who are considering studying abroad in the near future, we are introducing special, more flexible terms and conditions designed to help all prospective students to plan and book their study at NCG with confidence.
The following special terms and conditions apply to individual self-sponsored students who book a face-to-face course at any one of our centres to study anytime in 2021 or 2022 in case of temporary school closure mandated by the UK or Irish government to prevent the spread of Covid-19, and/or inability to travel due to Covid-19 related official international travel restrictions to the UK or the Republic of Ireland. Outside of these specific circumstances, the standard terms and conditions will apply.
Tuition | Students have the option to:
Accommodation | The options available are:
Medical/travel insurance:
In case of cancellation or postponement, the fee paid for medical/travel insurance can only be refunded if the insurance policy has not been issued yet.
Credit vouchers
The credit vouchers are subject to the following terms and conditions:
United Kingdom
We would like to remind you that there are some rules in place for those entering the UK. You can find out more about these rules here. In particular, please be aware that:
BEFORE YOU TRAVEL TO THE UK you will have to:
Take a COVID-19 test in the 3 days before you travel and have proof of a negative result when you travel. You will have to book this test in your home country; and
Book and pay for a travel test package that will include 2 COVID-19 tests to be taken on or before day 2 and on or after day 8 of your quarantine. The test kits will be delivered by post to the address in the UK where you will stay in quarantine; and
Complete a passenger locator form with the details of where you will stay in quarantine when you arrive and the travel test package booking reference number.
AFTER YOU HAVE ARRIVED IN THE UK you will have to quarantine for 10 days. During this period you will have to remain in your accommodation and you will have to have food and other necessities delivered to you (unless you are staying with one of our homestay hosts!).
Make sure you follow the rule above or you may be fined up to £10,000.
If you wish to shorten the quarantine period from 10 to 5 days, you can opt into the Test to release scheme and take an additional test on day 5 of your quarantine from a private provider. If the result of this test is negative, you can end the quarantine but you will still have to take the test on day 8 after arrival.
Ireland (Eire)
The Minister for Justice, has announced a further temporary extension of immigration and international protection permissions to 20 September 2021. This applies to permissions that are due to expire between 21 April 2021 and 20 September 2021 and includes permissions that have already been extended by the previous 6 temporary extensions. All passengers arriving in Ireland are required to have a negative Covid-19 test taken no more than 72 hours before arrival. International visitors must self-isolate for 14 days unless they are travelling from a country that is “green” or “orange” on the EU traffic lights system. For more information about arrivals to Ireland, please see here.
The current advice from the Irish visa authorities is as follows.
Students who left the State before completion of their studies due to COVID-19 may return and resume studies on the course they were enrolled on and holidays will apply as normal.
If you have an existing visa with unused study weeks on it, you have a few different options:
• Attend our online courses for those weeks remaining on your course whilst still in Ireland.
• Attend our online course from your home country for the remainder of unused weeks of your study.
• If you have returned to your country, keep your remaining weeks as a credit on your account with NCG and return to Ireland in the future with a new visa to complete your study.
Whichever option you select is up to you. Once you have decided please let NCG know via admissions@newcollegegroup.com
The Minister for Justice has announced a further temporary extension of immigration and international protection permissions to 20 April 2021. This applies to permissions that are due to expire between 21 January 2021 and 20 April 2021. The renewal of permission is on the same basis as the existing permission and the same conditions attach. This extension will benefit those who cannot get an appointment to register or renew an existing permission.
However, we encourage anyone who can renew, particularly Dublin-based students who can use the online system, to do so and not to wait until April. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Burgh Quay Registration Office will close on 23 December. Students with appointments for first time registrations are being contacted directly by the Immigration Service and they will be prioritised for appointments once the Public Office can safely reopen.
The below weblink should also be of assistance with any queries you may have:
https://www.education.ie/en/Press-Events/Press-Releases/2020-press-releases/PR20-03-22.html
and
http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/COVID-19-updates-and-announcements
If you have any queries about New College Group or would just like to talk about your future, our college advisors are on hand to help whenever you need it.
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