The Executive Board’s outlook on the next few weeks under pandemic conditions

The university’s ongoing responsible actions have proven successful. The university can, therefore, continue its current strategy as its hygiene concepts and general rules of conduct for studying and teaching as well as research and administration have stood the test. Mobile work continues to take precedence over working on site at the university wherever possible.

Thus, no further restrictions will be necessary at the moment. Access to buildings is regulated as before, ongoing research projects in laboratories and workshops can continue subject to strict and very closely coordinated hygiene concepts, and scientific inspections by external parties and other activities will be possible in digital formats only.

Lectures, seminars and tutorials during the winter semester will continue digitally, except for specific laboratory practicals. The digital submission of final papers and theses as well as oral examinations and the viewing of written exams in digital formats have now become standard practice.

Changes regarding the written exam phase

For the upcoming written exams on site, we will continue to use the hygiene concepts that were successfully used last year. Written exams will be scheduled in such a way that only a limited number of students will come to the university per day and their presence on campus will be phased. Attention will be paid to evenly distribute these students across both Campus Stadtmitte and Campus Lichtwiese, with a wide spread of individual dates and times while using large rooms far away from each other.

To reduce the number of written exam dates to some degree, examiners will be able to use alternative examination formats in the current winter semester as of now, such as “written open book exams”, homework assignments or seminar papers.

To assist students who do not have access to a good learning environment at home in preparation for their examinations, the University and State Library makes work/reading seating available at its two locations. In addition, the Kittler Student Centre at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology will be reopened based on the proven hygiene concepts.

The Executive Board will do its best to get the Hessian Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts to not count this winter semester as part of the prescribed period of study.

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