Exceptional semester: KHU thanks all faculty, staff and students

At the end of the lecture period of the summer semester, KHU spokesperson Prof. Dr. Birgitta Wolff, on behalf of the five university presidencies, thanks the teaching staff and all other employees as well as all students at the Hessian universities for their special efforts and considerate cooperation in this exceptional situation: "With these experiences, we can look forward to the coming winter semester 2020/21 with confidence, despite all the burdens and restrictions that will possibly remain into next year due to the pandemic."

In line with the Corona-related distance and hygiene rules that will continue to have to be observed for the foreseeable future, courses for the 2020/21 winter semester at Hessian universities will also have to be organized predominantly digitally. In the lecture period beginning on 2.11.2020, face-to-face courses will be offered wherever urgently required, e.g. laboratory practicals. There may also be face-to-face formats for other courses, such as small learning groups, where this is possible while observing spacing and hygiene rules. For all first-year students, who are to receive special support, there will also be optional face-to-face events to introduce them to their studies. In principle, it will also be possible in all areas to use hybrid formats - with physical and virtual presence of the students - depending on the infrastructural conditions.

The KHU clearly points out the special features of teaching at the large universities in Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Giessen, Kassel and Marburg: "Unlike at schools, teaching at universities often has very large courses of 1000 students and more. Also, unlike schoolchildren, university students do not always move in constant groups, but constantly change their environment. For these reasons alone, the possible infection scenarios at universities and schools are very different," says Prof. Wolff. In terms of space planning, he said, it must be taken into account that only about 15% of the seats in lecture halls and seminar rooms can be used due to spacing requirements. Also, teaching rooms could only be used intermittently because of cleaning requirements. Accordingly, Prof. Wolff states, "This rigorous reduction in room capacity, even with greatly expanded usage times, unfortunately precludes full or predominant attendance at our large universities with 25,000 to 46,000 students."

The experiences and initial analyses of the 2020 "Corona Summer Semester" will help the universities in Hesse to enter the next semester's teaching schedule well prepared and structured. Nevertheless, there is great agreement that university teaching and university life urgently need the presence discourse; it is important to return to this normal state as soon as the pandemic situation and the official regulation situation allow it.

The five universities in the state of Hesse have joined forces in the Conference of Hessian University Presidiums (KHU). The presidiums of the Technical University of Darmstadt, the Goethe University of Frankfurt, the Justus Liebig University of Giessen, the University of Kassel and the Philipps University of Marburg meet at regular intervals. The universities organized in the KHU take a joint position on current developments in higher education policy, especially in the state of Hesse, but also on educational and research policy challenges at national and European level. The goal is to secure and expand the competitiveness of the five Hessian universities.

Conference of Hessian University Presidents (KHU) Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Birgitta Wolff, President of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main (GU) www.khu-hessen.de Press Office of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main (GU) - Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 1 - 60323 Frankfurt am Main - Phone: 069 798-12472 - E-Mail: presse@uni-frankfurt.de