The Minister for Universities and Research, Maria Cristina Messa, has sent a note to university deans and general managers ahead of COVID-19 end of emergency as of April 1st to provide guidance and ensure a prompt and consistent application of new measures.

Decree-Law no. 24 of 24th March 2022, in fact, outlined a process of gradual reinstatement of ordinary procedures for all sectors affected by provisions enacted during the state of emergency, including higher education.

First of all, the Minister pointed out that Article 1, paragraph 1 of Decree-Law no. 111 of 6th August 2021 remains in force, according to which during academic year 2021-2022, universities' teaching and curricular activities were carried out primarily in presence. On this basis, the universities were able to establish, on the eve of the ongoing academic year, their scheduling with a considerable degree of independence. "With the new decree-law - the minister wrote - since no changes have been made in this regard, universities will be able to continue with their programmes, while obviously providing for activities 'to be carried out primarily in attendance', without prejudice to the degree of autonomy and organisational flexibility in relation to the epidemiological context of reference".

The Minister then recalled that until April 30th, both for students and for all other individuals accessing university facilities, it remains compulsory to possess and exhibit the basic green pass certifying either the state of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 or recovery from the infection or the completion of a rapid molecular or antigenic test with a negative result valid for 72 and 48 hours respectively.

In order to allow the services and activities to be carried out in the universities until April 30th, the decree maintains the precautionary measures used until now: mandatory use of respiratory protection equipment, prohibition of access to or stay on university premises for people with respiratory symptoms or a body temperature above 37.5°, and recommendation to keep an interpersonal safety distance of at least one metre.

Vaccination requirements for university staff are extended until 15th June 2022. In the note, the Minister specifies that, from April 1st to June 15th, "with regard to the failure to comply with vaccination requirements, only the sanctioning regime remains within the competence of the Ministry of Health through the Revenue Agency, since the provisions of Article 4-ter of Decree-Law no. 44/2021, which imposed on the heads of institutions, in the event of proven failure to comply with the vaccination requirement, the suspension of personnel from work and their salary, are no longer in force."