Stuttgart / Heidelberg (dpa / lsw) – The university leaders in the southwest are sounding the alarm: The corona-related return to exclusively digital teaching has serious consequences for students from the point of view of the state rectors’ conference. “In book studies, for example, the two digital semesters mean that a bachelor’s student will not enter the university for a third of his or her study time and will not have any direct exchange with the lecturers or his fellow students,” said Stephan Dabbert, chairman of the committee. “This will inevitably have an effect on the duration of the course and the success of the course,” added the rector of the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.
The Heidelberg rector Bernhard Eitel underlined the hurdles for the 5,000 freshmen and newly enrolled students in Heidelberg in a welcome email at the start of their studies: “The current circumstances make it extremely difficult to get to know each other, to exchange information and to organize studies as part of life.”
According to the nationwide resolutions, classroom teaching at the universities is suspended until November 30; digital formats and other distance learning formats are permitted according to the state’s Corona regulation. Exceptions apply to laboratory internships and exams, for example. Rector Dabbert would have asked for permission in the ordinance, which was only published the weekend before the start of the semester, to implement the original plans for reduced attendance operations under strict hygiene requirements.
The state of Baden-Württemberg also advocated this at the federal level – but was unfortunately not successful. Dabbert also sees problems with the practical events still permitted in the natural and engineering sciences as well as in medicine. They would often take place tightly under difficult conditions. “That will also have consequences.” He added: “If we are not gradually allowed to return to normality after Christmas, the quality of research and teaching in Baden-Württemberg will be massively impaired from 2021 onwards.”
To make matters worse, the new students of the year 2021 would start their studies with larger gaps than this year’s high school graduates due to the restricted school operations. The universities do not have the means and the staff to cover the pent-up demand of all student groups next year, said the agricultural economist.
Science Minister Theresia Bauer (Greens) also spoke out in favor of an early return to the concept of restricted presence operations. She very much wishes, especially for the freshmen, that the infection process in December would allow more face-to-face events and direct encounters. “University and studies cannot do without it in the long run.”
The state rectors’ conference represents the interests of nine member universities in the state with almost 170,000 students.
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