THE University of South Wales (USW) will suspend all face-to-face teaching at the end of this week, in response to the spread of coronavirus.

From Monday, March 23, all teaching will be done online and through arrangements between course teams and the students.

The new policy is expected to last until "at least after Easter" and will be in force at every USW campus – in Newport, Cardiff, and Pontypridd (Treforest and Glyntaff).

MORE NEWS:

In a letter to all staff and students, sent earlier today, USW said: "The top priority for all the staff of the university is the students, to facilitate this move to online teaching so that students’ learning continues."

Staff will be given further instructions this week on their own working arrangements.

There will also be mroe advice for students who live on campus.

The university called the ongoing outbreak "very unusual circumstances".

"We all need to be supportive and flexible with each other as we pull together to make this happen," the letter read.

USW said it intended to continue with normal timetable arrangements "where possible", especially for students in the final year of their studies.

Course teams will be liaising with students this week if timetables have to be changed.

"In a few instances, there may need to be very limited face-to-face professional assessments with individual students, but we’ll manage that directly with them," the university said. "We’ll also be talking to students whose home is on campus to make sure that they will be OK after teaching moves online."

International students at USW have already been told they can go home, in a move to try and minimise travel disruption.

USW said it would continue to follow the advice of the government and public health authorities.