Dear members of the academic community of the Ionian University,

this summer we are completing a special academic year. A year where the educational work was carried out remotely, with empty amphitheaters, classrooms and laboratory spaces. With students away from their place of study. With freshmen who have not yet experienced the full range of studies and the way they are organized. The Ionian University, responding to the special and suffocating conditions imposed by the pandemic crisis, has adapted to a new reality, respecting the academic quality of studies and firmly seeking to ensure the continuation of the educational process under the ever-changing public health data.

We all wish and hope that the new academic year will begin with the return of all of us to the natural university space, after three semesters of distance operation. This prospect is largely linked to protection measures defined by the competent bodies, which our institution will strictly observe in the context of the preparation of the new academic year. However, it is also connected with new means of dealing with the pandemic, which were not available at the beginning of the unprecedented pandemic phenomenon, but also at the beginning of last year. One such means is vaccination.

The desire to start a "normal" new year is strong. For this reason, we urge all students and staff to be vaccinated, if they have not already done so, and in this way to strengthen the hope of returning to the desired academic normalcy. Safely, individually and collectively.

Andreas Floros
Rector of the Ionian University