IMPORTANT ADVICE ON CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19)
Dear Partners WikiVisa - VikiTravel,
I hope this finds you well. I am writing regarding St Giles International’s policy regarding the acceptance of students from certain countries from now until 27th April 2020. The date of 27th April has been selected at the moment, but thank you for understanding that we may revise it depending on how the virus progresses. This policy applies to all St Giles International year-round schools.
Firstly, our thoughts and concerns are with the affected countries and the suffering caused by Coronavirus. We are standing with you and want to extend an offer to help in any way we can. Please reach out if we can assist at all by contacting: [email protected] or [email protected]; +44 (0)7878398419 (Whatsapp enabled) or +4420783704040. You’re also welcome to contact your Account Manager or our schools who will be happy to provide support.
The Coronavirus has been deemed a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organisation. Therefore, we trust our partners understand that we need to employ precautionary measures at this time to ensure of the safety of our students & staff and to do our bit in helping to stop the spread of the virus. With this in mind, we have had to take the difficult decision not to accept students from Category 1 regions and/or those who have been in close contact with persons from Category 1 regions for courses starting before Monday 27th April 2020. As of Friday 28th February, Category 1 currently includes:
- Wuhan city and Hubei Province (China)
- Iran
- Daegu or Cheongdo (Republic of Korea)
- Any Italian town under containment measures
We wish to reiterate that this will not affect students from any other regions within those countries or countries who currently have Category 2 status, who we will still be happy to continue to welcome to our schools during this period. This currently includes:
- Cambodia
- China (excluding Wuhan City and Hubei Province)
- Hong Kong
- Italy: north
- Japan
- Laos
- Macau
- Malaysia
- Myanmar
- Republic of Korea (excluding Daegu and Cheongdo)
- Singapore
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Vietnam
We would kindly ask our Partners to check whether their students have been to any Category 1 regions in the 14 days prior to their scheduled arrival at St Giles and to inform us if they have. We will ask our Partners to check whether students arriving at St Giles have been in close contact with those from Category 1 regions and again, we would invite you to report back should this be the case. Thank you for understanding that it is highly likely that we may need to postpone the student’s course accordingly.
Any students adversely affectedly by these measures will be offered the opportunity of a free course postponement, however St Giles reserves the right to deduct any additional charges for accommodation cancellations or other charges that may result from this decision. Students from Category 2 locations who wish to postpone their course due to the outbreak will be offered the same terms. In either scenario, we confirm that no tuition cancellation fees will be charged.
We would like to encourage our students to postpone their courses rather than cancel them, however, if they need to cancel their courses, then the same terms as above will apply.
Our Registration Fee is retained by Overseas Partners and does not appear on net invoices for students referred to us by Overseas Partners. We would encourage our Partners to take a generous view of the situation and to refund the Registration Fee for students cancelling due to the reasons detailed above.
We wish to reassure you that we are taking many preventative measures on site, some of which are noted below:
- Following information given by Public Health England, St Giles international advises students and staff to stay at home, contact the school and seek medical advice if they are feeling unwell and are experiencing the following symptoms:
- Fever (high temperatures)
- Coughs
- Regular Sneezing
- Shortness of breath and/or breathing difficulties
- Our staff have been made aware of the advice given by the UK government on how educational institutions should operate during the outbreak period, and will act on this accordingly.
- We have put in place measures across all our schools to try and minimise the spread of all illnesses and diseases, including providing hand sanitiser and guidance on the prevention of spreading germs.
- We will be issuing advice to our students which details relevant parts of current UK government Coronavirus policy & information on regions where they should avoid travelling to at the moment. We are advising them that if they take trips to Category 1 regions from now until 27th April whilst studying at St Giles, we will need to act in accordance with government advice and may be unable to accept them back at school.
We wish to thank our Overseas Partners and students for their support and cooperation. We know that this is a difficult & worrying time, particularly for those based in the countries that have been particularly badly affected, and we want to offer support in any way we can.
Kindest regards,
Hannah Lindsay
Group Sales and Marketing Director
St Giles International Head Office
154 Southampton Row
London WC1B 5JX (UK)
Office telephone number: +44 (0)20 7837 0404
Mobile number & Whatsapp:+44 (0)7878398419
e:[email protected]
w:www.stgiles-international.com
Skype: stgiles_hannah.lindsay
St Giles Brighton, Eastbourne, London Central & London Highgate named EL Gazette Centres of Excellence in 2017.
St Giles International Head Office, UK
Dear Elena,
In these challenging times, I would like to reach out to you personally and update you on the actions that we at ICEF are taking in response to the unprecedented Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.
We vigilantly monitor the situation on a day to day basis in the various locations where our events take place. We are in close contact with our venues and relevant authorities and actively follow the official advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We assess each event individually based on the facts available and the guidance that we receive from local partners and pertinent health agencies, as well as check with our clients registered to each event, taking their opinions and feelings on board in our decision making process.
Because our highest priority is and always will be the safety and well-being of our partners, customers and their families, colleagues and students, we decided to reschedule a number of events whenever we considered local conditions to be too risky (Seoul, Tokyo) or wherever government restrictions made holding the event inadvisable (Kiev, Moscow, Almaty, Adelaide, Toronto and Montréal).
Recognising the increasing uncertainty and worldwide disruption that COVID-19 is currently causing, all ICEF events taking place in the upcoming two months have been postponed. Please check icef.com/events/ for updates.
We thank you for your ongoing support and would like to extend our heartfelt sympathies to all our clients and partners currently experiencing difficulties. We are well aware of the challenges many of you are facing and our hearts and thoughts go out to you and to the study abroad industry in general.
Our worldwide teams remain at your disposal for anything you might want to share with us. Please write to [email protected] or contact your ICEF Account Manager if you need advice or if there is anything else we can do for you. We always value your questions, ideas and feedback.
I want to thank you for putting your trust in us as you plan your future activities and look forward to welcoming you to an ICEF event in the not too distant future. We will keep your safety top of mind at all times and genuinely hope that normality will soon return to the world and to every one of you.
Wishing you, your families, colleagues and communities good health and safety going forward.
Sincerely,
Markus Badde
CEO