Little did we know just over a year ago, when the first two cases of Covid-19 were identified in York, that we would have spent the twelve months since in the midst of a global health crisis.

But there was something in that experience in late January and early February last year which set a tone and example that we, as a University community, have followed since.

Colleagues came together with speed to work through the issues, and produce calm and proportionate responses amid huge uncertainty.

Being open and transparent in our early communications with students, staff, concerned parents, and local residents, created trust, and with it a sense of community that would support each other in the months ahead.

Collaboration and partnership have been key, not only here on campus, but across the city. From day one we have worked with the City Council, with the local NHS, and with our colleagues at York St John University, York College and Askham Bryan College.

Examples of this partnership have come in many forms: from sending equipment, PPE, packed lunches to York Hospital in the first weeks of the crisis, establishing the City’s first walk-through testing centre on the University campus; working with the City Council on test and trace systems, supporting schools to kick off their testing as schools reopened this month, collaborating with our local supermarkets in delivering groceries to students who had to self-isolate, and much more.

In the past year, we have had to find new ways of working. Everyone has had to adapt during the pandemic; our students, researchers, lecturers, timetablers, technicians, cleaners, security teams and professional services staff.

Our campus has never closed, with essential workers remaining on site throughout the year to support students and colleagues, especially a sizeable proportion of students who had no choice but to stay in York - this is their home.

We moved all our teaching online during the peak of the crisis last year and we then planned different scenarios for blended learning – with different balances of online and in-person teaching – for students returning in September. We will continue this balanced approach into our Summer Term, adapting as needed to Government guidance.

We have engaged our student community and our students’ unions to gather feedback throughout the year on how we can improve services, provide support for health and wellbeing, and adapt our campus so that we have safe places for students to experience at least some elements of social life.

We were one of the first universities to launch a special financial fund to support students, knowing that lack of good IT or wifi or loss of income from part-time jobs would be incredibly damaging to their success.

It has undoubtedly been challenging moving much of our teaching to an online format, but we have also developed new ideas and skills in digital education because of the pandemic, and there are elements of this that students tell us they would like to keep as part of their learning post-Covid.

On the research front, colleagues from across the institution have found new ways of carrying out their projects, whether from home or on campus. The first research labs reopened at the end of May 2020 and have been operational, at varying levels, ever since, with technicians adapting safety measures to all the changing circumstances.

Covid-19 has mobilised our academics to lead and contribute to the local, national and international response. From work connected to the vaccine effort and supporting school teachers to deliver online education, to the impact on future climate change policy, our academics have been part of the global effort to drive new insight and investigate the immediate impact of the virus, as well as the longer-term implications for society.

There have been especially challenging moments. October 2020 was a particularly difficult time, when numbers of self-isolating students rose significantly and staff from all across the University volunteered, on top of their day jobs, to make up food packs, help with deliveries, and phone students every day to check on their wellbeing.

That compassion really came to the fore at Christmas when we distributed hampers packed with local produce and gifts to care-leavers and estranged students at the University, a small but significant gesture during the Festive period when not everyone is able to access family support and help, even from afar.

Through all of this disruption, our students and staff have remained patient, resilient, and supportive of others. They have inspired us in their inventiveness and commitment, and have challenged us to keep innovating.

Our international students have had to deal with additional uncertainties as the situation in the UK rapidly evolved. We helped them travel safely to York, expanding our airport collection service and joining a scheme with other universities to charter flights into the UK - despite Covid, international students remained keen to benefit from everything a UK degree has to offer. As the rules on travel changed, we put together a package of financial support to help with the costs of mandatory quarantine and testing.

For me, the stand-out reflection is that our community has come together to act for others, whether that’s responding to the needs of students, colleagues, frontline workers, our city, or wider societies in the UK and beyond. Be it research into the impact of the pandemic, supporting testing for the city, or reaching out locally and internationally through the Festival of Ideas and our programme of online talks, we have worked hard to extend our commitment to the public good to the city and beyond.

We have learnt a great deal from each other, but most of all how to come together, to be compassionate, and each play a role in a strong, resilient community that will see us through into better times.

Prof Charlie Jeffery is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of York