Student Services wins Newham Civic Trust Award

The University of East London's Student Services department has been awarded a Newham Civic Trust award for their efforts to help vaccinate students, staff and the local community during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The University was one of a number of organisations that was honoured by the London Borough of Newham for their civic efforts in the category of "Health Equity 50 Steps".

Nicole Redman, Assistant Chief Operating Officer and  director of Student Services, accepted the award on behalf of the University. She said the vaccination centre was a great example of the University and its staff and students working with local authorities to provide a vital service for all.

"I want to acknowledge the efforts of teams across the university as well as our students in coming together in the peak of the pandemic to set up the centre and ensure the health and wellbeing of our community," she said.

The university's vaccination clinic grew out of its testing clinic which was set up in conjunction with Newham Public Health on 30 November 2020. The testing clinic was part of a government strategy to track asymptomatic cases of Covid-19.

The clinic was first set up in SportsDock at the Docklands Campus and led by Student Services along with the School of Health, Sports and Bioscience, which trained around 50 staff and students. Around 7,000 people from the university and local community were tested.

In March 2021, Newham Public Health asked the University to host a vaccination centre. Vaccinations were provided in the Docklands clinic and a second clinic was set up in Stratford as well. The two testing centres were adapted to provide vaccinations although not at the same time as offering tests.  Vaccinations continued to the latter half of 2021 and were integral in the University's planning for student intake that year.