The Minister for Higher Education has said the return to campus for third-level students in the coming weeks "will not be without challenge" and that individual colleges will have discretion when it comes to managing numbers at larger lectures.
However, Minister Simon Harris added that it is important that students and staff go back to in-person education, following a year where most on-campus activity was suspended because of Covid restrictions.
"We have to get our students and our staff safely back to college campuses," he said.
"College was never meant to be about just looking down a Zoom lens, and obviously certain things had to be done to keep people safe, but we are in a very different space now in terms of the pandemic, thanks to vaccination and thanks to the fact that I think we have all learned an awful lot about Covid."
Mr Harris said many aspects of third-level education can come back, such as workshops and tutorials, as well as clubs and societies, with institutions using their own judgement regarding the size of lectures.
"When it comes to lecture halls, each of the universities will have to look at the facilities they have and how do they make those facilities safe. There isn't a one-size fits all option, because universities and colleges aren't all the same shapes and sizes," he said.
"Each university and college has an obligation to put a plan together to keep their own students and staff safe."
The minister said a number of institutions will cut the times of their lectures, while others will reduce the capacity of their lectures and others will look at options such as CO2 monitors.
"Indeed, all will be looking at things like ventilation and face masks and social distancing," he added.
Minister Harris was speaking during a visit to Clonmel, where he visited the former Kickham Barracks site, which is being redeveloped as a public space to include part of the new Technological University being formed from the merger of Limerick Institute of Technology and its counterpart in Athlone.
