Thecoronavirus pandemicand its consequences for the university - in education
The 2020 summer semester was dominated by the coronavirus pandemic: even the start of the semester was not an ordinary one. As a preventative measure, the university's Executive Board decided to convert the traditional first semester welcome on March 9, 2020, with around 500 expected participants, into a virtual format at short notice. A few days later, following discussions with the health authorities in Ludwigshafen about the current risk situation and in coordination with the Rhineland-Palatinate university management and the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Science, teaching in face-to-face format was suspended from 16 March 2020; initially until 20 April 2020, then for the entire semester with the exception of the examination phase in June and July, which will largely take place in presence and in accordance with the applicable safety regulations. Instead of the previous face-to-face formats, the university opted for virtual education, which started on 23.03.2020 with only a one-week delay to the start of the semester.
After some teething problems, which were mainly related to the testing and resilience of corresponding services and the lack of lead time, the digitization of education worked well: Dr. Imke Buß, Head of the Departments of Studies & Education and E-Learning, drew an initial, largely positive conclusion in mid-April: "I assume a digitization of 98%: Courses are not actually canceled. A large proportion of courses are held via video conferencing systems and are therefore synchronous. Another variant is the recording and provision of videos and texts in conjunction with reflection questions or exchanges between students, i.e. asynchronous e-learning via the OLAT platform. One challenge is that creating material for asynchronous education is time-consuming." At the end of this challenging semester, University President Prof. Dr. Peter Mudra sums up: "The feedback from the courses and activities in the area of online education, to which we had to transfer the planned face-to-face courses in a very short time, is predominantly positive. Comments and criticism in this area were taken on board and - where possible - translated into solutions. In terms of the tools used, we are now on an increasingly reliable basis, but we are still in a joint learning process - as are other universities. Overall, our university staff have mastered the challenges quite well. However, 'quite well' should not be our benchmark for 'good studying', 'good education' or 'good work'," explains Mudra and adds: "After a phase in which the realities of life were severely restricted by guidelines and supported by improvisation and creativity, we now need to ask, with the participation of all university members: What are our experiences of the last few months? What went well, what went badly? What do we take with us for the future?"
To this end, surveys on the situation during the corona crisis were and are initially conducted with students, teaching staff and employees. The results will be fed back and used to determine the further development of home office regulations and the design of education and examinations in the future. The Staff Council and the youth and trainee representatives, the representatives for severely disabled employees, the Departments and degree programs, the university committees and, in particular, the student representatives are also involved in this process. "The first results of the university-wide student survey on the coronavirus semester are now available, for example," explains Prof. Dr. Ellen Bareis, Vice President for Studies and Education, Quality Management and Arts and Culture. Overall, these results are surprisingly pleasing, in particular the experience with digital education to date has been largely positively evaluated and the desire for further integration of digital formats has been articulated. Hybrid education therefore currently appears to the university management to be the approach of choice for the future.
"We decided very early on not to give up the summer semester, but to evaluate it. Our top priority was to ensure that students were not disadvantaged by the current situation," continued Prof. Dr. Ellen Bareis. As a result, students are free to decide whether they want to take examinations. The examination period has also been extended by two weeks to a total of five weeks, alternative forms of examination to written examinations have been offered (where possible) and compulsory registration for module examinations has been extended by one semester from two to three semesters. "In addition, students can request the deletion of their examination results within one month of the announcement of their examination results without giving reasons in line with the opportunity regulation of this positive semester," says Bareis.
-in the international context
What was already a challenging time for students in general, it was in potency for students in the international context: students who had just spent a semester or internship abroad were rushed back or had to spend their semester in virtual isolation with digital lectures. Conversely, many of the foreign "incomings" left head over heels for home or spent their semester in the GAG apartments rented for them in Ludwigshafen with digital lectures. Many have extended their stay in Germany due to the precarious health situation in their home countries and the difficult travel conditions.
Many international students who complete a full course of study in Ludwigshafen are in financial difficulties because not only traditional student jobs in the catering industry have been lost, but also contractually secured working student jobs. Not least because of them, the university management has actively supported the petition by the Studierendenwerk Vorderpfalz to set up emergency funds for students. There is a great deal of planning uncertainty for international mobility in the winter semester, which is reflected in the number of incoming and outgoing students, among other things.
"Conversely, we have also used the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity," explains Prof. Dr. Edith Rüger-Muck, Vice President for International Affairs and Diversity. "In just a few months, we negotiated three further double degree agreements and got them ready to sign: from the summer semester of 2021, students on both the Bachelor's degree course in International Personnel Management and Organization (IPO) and the Master's degree course in International Human Resources Management (IHRM) will be able to obtain a degree from the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, as well as a degree from Ludwigshafen University. In addition, a double degree for the Master's degree course in International Marketing Management has been agreed with the International College of Management (ICMS) in Sydney. Other progress has also been made in the area of international affairs: Despite the strict requirements, all "German as a Foreign Language" (TestDaF) examinationswere able to be held in presence and the establishment of a language center for international exchange was started, said Rüger-Muck. "Kerstin Gallenstein, Head of our International Office, has also set up a "Fall School" on the topic of Europe to make up for the summer school that was canceled. We were also able to launch new digital support formats to intensify our international partnerships, including co-teaching formats with Hong Kong Baptist University, bilateral guest lectures, digital courses with international students and an international lecture series."
-in the area of personnel/administration
From February, the university management sensitized all university members to the issue and actively communicated the hygiene recommendations. At the beginning of March, instructions were issued on voluntary 2-week isolation for those returning from high-risk countries and on the unconditional obligation to report proven coronavirus infections. The administrative management set up a task force, appointed a coordination officer and set up a coronavirus news ticker at https://www.hwg-lu.de/hochschule/corona-aktuelle-informationen-der-hwg-lu.html. From 11 March, all public events were canceled, initially up to and including 20 April, then for the entire semester. On 12 March 2020, all employees were informed about the extended use of home office (for risk groups; people with family care responsibilities up to 100%) and measures to drastically reduce the number of people in the university buildings (including reducing the opening hours of libraries and buildings). One week later, from 18.03.2020, all possible areas of the administration switched to home office, and from 23.03.2020 all university buildings including the canteen, cafeterias and libraries were temporarily closed (from the end of April, the libraries will be open again to a limited extent). The accessibility of the various units via email and telephone was guaranteed at all times. "Overall, the work processes in the central and decentralized units have run very satisfactorily on the primarily digital basis and the home office constellation that has been in place for some time," summarizes Chancellor Carolin Nöhrbaß, "we also want to adopt some of the regulations for the future - keyword 'home office, the normal working of tomorrow'." Planning is currently underway for the 2020/21 winter semester with various scenarios.
Outlook for the 2020/21 winter semester
Based on the current situation, particularly in an international context, the winter semester is also unlikely to be a normal semester.The possibilities for face-to-face teaching will be significantly limited by the room resources required by the legal requirements, and it is also important to provide the best possible protection for people who belong to a risk group with appropriate solutions. Our current plans therefore focus on a hybrid form of face-to-face and virtual education.
The following timings are planned for the winter semester in consultation with the department heads:
a) The first semester groups of the Bachelor's degree courses will predominantly start on 02.11.2020, as there will be delays for the admission procedures via DoSV due to the later school-leaving qualifications. The lecture period will be more compact; it will end on 16.01.2021.
b) For the groups not covered by a), the winter semester courses will start as planned on 28.09.2020 in accordance with the 2020 semester schedule.
c) The degree programs in continuing education as well as some special degree programs may deviate from the above dates.
d) The planned examination period is extended by one week. It starts for a) on 18.01.2021 and for b) on 11.01.2021
For the summer semester 2021, we currently assume that all groups will largely start together - as in the past.
Overall situation at the HWG LU
The financial situation in 2020/21 is challenging for the HWG LU: the previous Higher Education Pact III for financing universities expires at the end of 2020. However, its successor, the "Higher Education Initiative for Good Studies and Good Education in Rhineland-Palatinate", which was announced at the end of 2019, has not yet been finalized: "Talks are still ongoing between the universities and the state government regarding individual and framework agreements," says University President Mudra.
The high costs of renting additional premises, which made it necessary to postpone the planned new building on the site of the former student parking lot on the corner of Ernst-Boehe-Straße and Ludwig-Reichling-Straße, represented an additional burden. The new building was originally due to be completed in 2016; the university management now expects it to be finished in December 2022.
