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A young man continues his education - and has plenty of space to study (symbol photo)
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Because the Fernuni Hagen announced that it would permanently film him during an online exam via the webcam and also save these recordings, a law student submitted an urgent application to the North Rhine-Westphalian Higher Administrative Court in Münster.
"During the corona crisis, Fernuni handled a lot of things really well and pragmatically," the 31-year-old told SPIEGEL, "but here it overshoots the mark."
With reference to the special corona regulations of the university, the exam participants should be monitored.
For this, they are filmed during the entire time in order to be able to recognize possible irregularities or attempts at deception afterwards.
In addition, the microphone should be activated and the screen shared.
"It is unclear when the recordings will be deleted"
"When the recordings will be deleted is unclear," says the budding lawyer, who is studying part-time and is about to be admitted to the first state examination.
The 31-year-old is supported in his lawsuit by the Society for Freedom Rights (GFF).
"In our opinion, the planned approach of the university violates the General Data Protection Regulation and the right to informational self-determination," says GFF lawyer David Werdermann.
A mere video transmission would also be sufficient to uncover attempts at deception.
"Allegedly voluntary"
Fernuni Rector Ada Pellert reacted slightly annoyed to the lawsuit.
"It's a shame that people complain instead of talking," she tweeted, pointing out that the online exam at home was an offer "that many students very much welcomed in a time that was not easy for everyone."
Other universities had also experimented with video surveillance for online exams in recent months, such as the Bucerius Law School in Hamburg.
"The emergency solution that emerged was a pilot project at the time, without any prior knowledge of practical or data protection law," says university spokesman Jonathan Schramm.
"Clearer data protection framework would certainly make sense"
Bucerius Law School has consulted with many government agencies in the past few months, but ultimately there are still many questions unanswered.
"Clearer data protection framework conditions for conducting online exams would certainly make sense," says Schramm.
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The student umbrella organization Free Association of Student Unions (fzs) is also warning of the urgent need for regulation for online exams and the audio and video surveillance used.
"This type of monitoring represents a considerable and legally dubious interference with the data protection and privacy of the students," says fzs board member Iris Kimizoglu.
There is another way of doing this.
"The Fernuni Hagen itself also had online exams written without supervision last semester," said the 31-year-old plaintiff in an interview with SPIEGEL.
And even with open-book exams, which was previously rather unusual in the subject of law, the students are allowed to use all sources that seem useful to them during the processing time.
The penal exam, which the Higher Administrative Court will have to decide on in the coming days, is scheduled for March 8th.
It is a bit stressful, on the one hand, to prepare for this exam and, on the other hand, to represent the urgent application in court, says the law student: "But the encroachments on fundamental rights are simply too obvious, you have to defend yourself against them."
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