Dresden / Chemnitz (dpa / sn) – The Corona crisis is causing fewer foreign students at Saxony’s universities. Around 1,100 international students have enrolled at the TU Dresden for the recently started winter semester. That was about 30 percent less than last year, said university spokesman Konrad Kästner on request. A total of 7200 young women and men started their studies at the TU Dresden – five percent less than last year.
Even if lectures and seminars cannot currently take place as usual due to the corona pandemic: “The TU Dresden endeavors to provide face-to-face courses, especially for new students,” said Gerald Gerlach, Vice-Rector for Education at TU Dresden. In order to adhere to the hygiene and distance rules, only small seminars, exercises or internships are possible.
According to the TU Chemnitz, 2,674 students of foreign origin registered for the winter semester. That is around 100 less than last year. Due to the corona pandemic, many prospective students in their home countries had difficulties getting a visa, said TU spokesman Marion Steinebach. “The situation is difficult for many students from abroad.” Without the corona crisis, says Steinebach, the university would have expected an increase in foreign students this year.
A total of around 10,000 students are registered for the current semester – around 70 more than in the previous year. In the past few months, online teaching has seen “an enormous boost,” said Steinebach. Almost all lecturers have now developed new digital concepts for their events – the students of the 2020/2021 winter semester now benefit from this. It is not just about lectures, experiments are also recorded and played on video, for example.
The University of Leipzig welcomed around 7,000 new students in October, about as many as last year. According to Thomas Hofsäss, Vice-Rector for Education and International Affairs, there was no major slump among foreign first-year students despite Corona. At the beginning of the semester, around 690 international applicants accepted their study place, which is only slightly fewer than last year with 720. In addition, there are still newcomers.
The winter semester had started well in Leipzig “according to the circumstances”, said a spokesman. The courses have been running since the end of October, many of them digital or in “hybrid form” – some of the students learn in a seminar room or lecture hall and the others at home. “Of course, everyone has to get used to it first,” it said. Especially the new students should at least have the opportunity to be at the university at least from time to time.
Among other things, the Faculty of Chemistry and Mineralogy relies on a rotation system with which only those who have attended a lecture come together in the laboratories. The same group then also has pure online phases. In the wake of the corona pandemic, for example, a project for prospective physics teachers has emerged: the smartphone with its sensor and measurement technology is transformed into a “smart physics laboratory” so that experiments can also be carried out at home.
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