Coronavirus (COVID-19) Updates

Travel During COVID-19 Pandemic

Before booking an overseas trip, we encourage you to check that you will be able to return to Qatar. We also request Focal Points or Line Managers to ensure that the previous email titled “Using Leave to Travel Outside Qatar During COVID-19 Pandemic” (link below) is communicated to their teams, ensuring that they are aware of the consequences should they wish to travel outside Qatar as well to get their confirmation/consent as a reply. 

If you do choose to apply for leave to travel, the following steps need to be completed beforehand:

• Employees will need to inform their line manager, who will coordinate with HBKU HR and communicate the request with the proposed leave details to senior management for approval.
• Once approval is received, HBKU HR will work with QF Employee Relations to obtain the Chief Human Capital Officer approval. 
• Once these steps are completed, then the employee can submit their annual leave request on the ERP system. 

For further enquiries, please contact the Employee Relations team at er@hbku.edu.qa.

For those who do travel, we advise you to continue to take all precautionary measures to ensure your safety and wellbeing. 

Graduation Ceremony Class of 2020-Postponed

Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) treats the health and safety of its community as a top priority. Amid the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) situation, HBKU’s graduation ceremony for the Class of 2020, which was originally scheduled to take place on May 3, 2020, has been postponed. This is in line with the announced postponement of QF Convocation. 

We will continue to monitor the situation, and will announce a new date for the graduation ceremony at the earliest opportunity to ensure that our graduates have the opportunity to celebrate their tremendous achievements.

Further information regarding academic degrees will be communicated separately to our graduates.

Health and Wellbeing

Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) continues to take precautionary measures to support the health, well-being, and safety of our community members and their families. We are also working to minimize the risk of spreading the virus.

In the spirit of transparency and awareness, we want to share some information about these ongoing efforts as we continue to serve HBKU community members.

Supporting our team’s health and safety while minimizing risk

HBKU has a Health & Safety Office located in the HBKU Research Complex that supports the HBKU community and entities across Education City. This office is following the below precautions, which are provisional and may change as new data and guidance emerges:

1. Facilities locked down with access restricted

As the number of confirmed cases continues to rise, HBKU is following Qatar Foundation directions and has extended the work-from-home period. As such, we are now asking all team members to work remotely. All HBKU facilities are locked down except for critical operations and emergencies.

During this period, the HBKU safety team will continue supporting staff and contractors, and providing daily site observations and advice on best practices for a safe workplace, overseeing and ensuring good housekeeping and decontamination practices, as well as recommending proper personal protective equipment (PPE) and sanitizers as required. The HBKU safety team can be reached for enquiries, access requests, and emergencies, by email at halmutawa@hbku.edu.qaand abinder@hbku.edu.qa, or on the landline on 44540191.

As working remotely raises the possibility of making certain functions and roles more difficult, we are ensuring that all team members who require access to their resources and equipment to continue functioning securely will remain safe.

HBKU values our partner staff and contractors, including our cleaning crews and security who support us on a daily basis. Our Safety Workplace Experience teams are actively working to limit the impact our temporary lockdown measures will have on all these partner staff members across all offices.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/workplace-school-and-home-guidance.pdf

2. Recommendation to suspend all business travel and personal travel

Although HBKU places a high value on community involvement and in-person interaction, HBKU has temporarily canceled all conference attendance, inter-office travel, and other business-related trips. QF previously asked for caution with personal international travel, and we reiterate that guidance. We are closely monitoring developments in governmental travel restrictions. Full details are available here.

3. Following best health practices

HBKU has encouraged all team members to follow responsible health procedures to protect themselves and the people they come into contact with. While we have established the above measures as a university, we are also circulating the following tips to promote safe practices among individuals:

• Wash your hands frequently with soap and water and use hand sanitizer throughout the day.
• Stay home if you have even mild cold or flu symptoms. 
• Avoid international travel.
• Consider your own contingency planning. Check your emergency supplies and ensure you have adequate food, medicine (in particular, prescription medicine), and critical household goods (think batteries, trash bags, hygiene supplies, etc.) to last at least 30 days.

4. Promoting a positive and productive remote work experience

Some of the tips for holding meetings over video conference include:

• Use video conferencing for both informal chats and scheduled meetings. While working remotely, we should continue to look for opportunities to speak face-to-face, not just over emails. So please use video for quick check-ins with colleagues as well as for organized and scheduled meetings.
• When meeting, be considerate about giving space to speak. Interruptions can be harder to control remotely. One way to manage a meeting flow is to use a system of hand cues: If somebody is already speaking, raise a finger to indicate you would like to go next. If somebody already has a finger raised, you can raise two fingers, and so on.
• Minimize distractions by turning off notifications during the video conference. If taking notes on your computer, please be clear that is what you are doing so the person you are meeting with does not think you are distracted.

5. Safe workplace practice (for community members working onsite)

Measures to limit the spread and prevent infection:

• Keep at least a 1m distance from your colleagues.
• Limit or cease contact with persons who are infected or who are supposed to have been in contact with other infected people.
• Stay home if you have respiratory symptoms or fever as per the QF process flow chart for “COVID-19 Symptoms Process for Staff and Students”.
• If you are sick, wear a facemask when you are around other people.  

Preventing the spread of infection at work:

• Before starting your work, use a product effective against coronavirus to disinfect your desk, keyboard, computer mouse, work phone, doorknobs and any other objects or surfaces that you or your co-workers touch frequently.
• Routinely wipe down your workstation, keyboard and telephone with a disinfectant or disinfectant wipe.
• Routinely wipe electronic appliances such as your mobile phone or tablet with a disinfectant wipe.
• Only use your own pen, pencil, and paper.
• Wipe down the keyboard of the photo copier before use and wipe your ID card after activation of the copier.
• In elevators do not press any button with your finger.
• If possible, avoid touching handrails with your hands or use a paper tissue for support and discard tissue immediately in a closed bin.
• If you must touch surfaces, immediately wash your hands.

For further direction when working onsite, please click on the following guidelines provided by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Here are a few helpful resources on COVID-19:

• World Health Organization (WHO)
• S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• Qatar Ministry of Public Health (MOPH)
• https://www.moph.gov.qa/english/Pages/Coronavirus2019FAQs.aspx
• https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2020-03/documents/sars-cov-2-list_03-03-2020.pdf

Academic and Research 

Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s (HBKU’s) IT team is committed to ensuring educational and research continuity. To support our community members during the period of remote working, students, faculty, researchers and staff have access to the following:

• Canvas - an open management platform that supports learning innovation. Users can log in through - https://lms.hbku.edu.qa/login/canvas
• Library resources - offering a comprehensive selection of Arabic and English academic collections, the online gateway caters to the specialized research needs of both undergraduate and postgraduate scholars alike. View the HBKU Library page. 
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) – is a technology which allows users to access their own virtual desktop (Microsoft Windows) from any browser and from anywhere. Users can access the VDI through https://vdi.hbku.edu.qa
• WebEx - allows community members to have face-to-face meetings with video conferencing and screen sharing from any device
• Virtual Private Network (VPN) - allows you to operate internal systems that are not publicly available
• HBKU team site (used by some units)
• HBKU email network - users can log in through the HBKU email webmail link at https://mail.hbku.edu.qa

IT Support 

HBKU Technology 

Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU)’s technology services team aims to continue supporting the HBKU community in a variety of ways while the university implements distance learning, and provide the highest level of technical assistance through the following platforms: 

Support Team 

The university’s technology services (UTS) support team is available during this period of remote working. A technology support clinic for students and employees has been set up for all computing and technological queries and is available Sunday to Thursday from 10 am to 2 pm. To connect, please use the following: https://hbku.webex.com/meet/hbkuitsupport.

The HBKU technology call center will be staffed during Ramadan from Sunday to Thursday, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. To contact the center, please call: 4454 1045. 

For IT support and assistance, please send requests to hbkuitsupport@hbku.edu.qa 

Cisco WebEx

HBKU students, faculty, researchers and staff have access to Cisco WebEx, the leading enterprise solution for video conferencing, online meetings, screen sharing, webinars, web conferencing, and conference calling.

Cisco WebEx enables enhanced collaboration and allows the HBKU community to connect and communicate effectively with each other. 

To access the platform, please refer to the following guide here. 

Virtual Private Network (VPN) Access

Some HBKU services, such as high performance computing, the HBKU Library, and the research server, require you to be connected to the university’s Virtual Private Network (VPN). 

To learn more about how to download, install, and configure the VPN, please follow the instructions here (Windows - Mac).

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) 

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is a technology that enables users to access their own virtual desktop (Microsoft Windows) from any browser, anywhere. 

VDI supports enhanced user mobility and remote access so that a standardized desktop can be reached from almost any approved and compatible endpoint in any location. 

To learn more about how to navigate and access VDI internally and externally, and how to configure VDI for OneDrive, please follow the instructions here. 

Information Technology Knowledge Base

HBKU’s Information Technology Knowledge Base is a platform available to students, faculty, researchers, and staff. The support platform can be used when working remotely, to enhance technology skills and provide tools that will help to incorporate technology into distant teaching, learning, and research.

The Knowledge Base is a set of around 200 training modules that focus on productivity applications such as Microsoft Office, big data, data visualization, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and many more topics.To access the platform, you must be a current member of staff or a student at HBKU.

To explore the applications further, please follow these instructions:

1. Visit https://kbreg.hbku.edu.qa/
2. Click on ‘Sign In’
3. Log in with your HBKU email account

Banner

Banner is HBKU’s student information system and can be used by faculty to submit final grades during this period of remote working. Using your HBKU email address and password, click here to access Banner.