Students in the corona pandemic: You want to go back to university

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Members of the “Not Only Online” initiative in front of the Humboldt University in Berlin

Photo: Claudia Rohmer

For many, enrolling at the Humboldt University (HU) in Berlin is the beginning of something very big.

The main building on Unter den Linden, the quote from Karl Marx in the entrance hall, the many Nobel Prize winners, the many possibilities.

In the corona pandemic, everything shrinks to a small flat share, a small computer screen.

As at most universities in Germany, face-to-face events at the HU are largely suspended, the libraries are closed, many students have not seen their university from the inside for months, some never.

On this Monday in March, exactly one week before the next Bund-Länder-Round, some of them at least gathered outside in front of the locked gate.

They stand at a distance, wear FFP2 masks, hold banners and posters.

"We're slowly becoming zoombies," it says.

Or: »For sale!

What is our education worth to you? "

"We do not understand why there is no concept, why we are not spoken to and why we are so little seen in public debate."

Johannes Hofmann from the "Not Only Online" initiative

The “Not Only Online” initiative, in which students from all Berlin universities organize themselves, has invited.

She wants to auction the main HU building today - the rooms are no longer needed anyway, at least not for teaching.

It is a symbolic act, an idea that sounds a bit absurd, but behind which there is a lot of despair: “We understand that one has to show renunciation of responsibility towards everyone and we are ready to support it.

But we do not understand why there is no concept, why we are not spoken to and why we are so little seen in the public debate, «says student Johannes Hofmann, 30, into the microphone.

The approximately 100 listeners: inside clap.

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Lucie Gröschel at the symbolic auction of the Humboldt University

Photo: Kristin Hermann

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been repeated protests by students.

In the beginning it was mainly about missing and then insufficient financial aid, now the big questions are being asked: How long do you want students to continue learning at a distance?

Why is there no test strategy for universities, no opening plan, no perspective?

And why are students always forgotten?

No mention in the decision paper

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The “Not Only Online” initiative was founded in mid-February.

Frustration had built up for a while, says Lucie Gröschel, 21, who is one of the founders.

The federal-state consultations at the beginning of March would have given a big boost.

"There was talk of opening gyms, hardware stores and beer gardens, but the universities and we students were not an issue at all and do not appear anywhere in the decision paper."

The initiative formulated its demands in an open letter to politicians and university management;

Above all, she would like a gradual and cautious return to face-to-face teaching.

"The matter of course with which the universities are kept closed has no justification," says the letter.

Almost 1,400 supporters have signed up to date.

Your displeasure is more than just being annoyed.

In front of the HU gate, the topic of loneliness, the loss of motivation, the danger of serious psychological problems is raised again and again.

Online teaching works - but not in the long term

There is broad agreement that online teaching at German universities works well.

A survey by the Center for Higher Education Development (CHE), which was published on Thursday, shows that lectures and examinations could be maintained almost completely in the winter semester 2020/21.

Both students and teachers even want digital teaching elements to remain after the pandemic, as a supplement and enrichment of classroom teaching.

However, there is also broad agreement that purely digital teaching cannot work in the long term.

Because there are always technical problems.

Because some subjects are dependent on laboratory internships and excursions - face-to-face events that in part had to be canceled in the winter semester, as the CHE survey showed.

And because the course in all subjects thrives on people coming together, discussing, exchanging thoughts and arguments.

"You don't even want to cover up the fact that it doesn't matter what happens to us."

Katja Ruete, student at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg

At the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg, students had the opportunity to do so at least in the first four weeks of the winter semester.

Some courses, albeit a few, took place on the university premises, says Katja Ruete, 23, who is studying English and history at the JMU as a high school teacher.

Everyone in the lecture halls was wearing masks, and there was a distance of one and a half meters from each seat and a QR code for registration.

The hygiene concept seemed to work for her: "I think everyone felt safe there."

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Nevertheless, Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) announced at the end of November that classroom teaching at Bavarian universities would be suspended again on December 1st.

Ruete and her fellow students didn't just want to put up with it.

They formulated a four-page letter to Söder in which they described their needs: the impossibility of productive discussions in zoom calls;

the difficulties of preparing for state or sports exams remotely;

the shared rooms that are much too small to study.

On December 2, Ruete and eleven fellow students signed the letter and sent it to the Bavarian State Chancellery, for the attention of Markus Söder, with a request for an answer.

Since then they have heard: nothing.

"Of course we didn't expect something to come back straight away," says Ruete.

But the fact that they received no answer at all for months, not even a text block - that shocked the group after all.

"You don't even want to cover up the fact that it obviously doesn't matter what happens to us." When SPIEGEL asked what happened to the letter, the State Chancellery did not respond.

Students feel "mocked"

In the meantime, the situation in Würzburg has not improved, says Ruete.

In February the university announced that the coming summer semester would also take place "predominantly digitally";

only laboratory internships and practical exercises should be held in face-to-face form.

Ruete and her colleagues are also bothered by how the university wrapped this announcement.

The digital teaching is "lively in a colorful way and gives students and teachers fun," it says in the communication.

Ruete: "It reads like a mockery to us."

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A comment by Sophia Schirmer

According to a statement by Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens), students in Baden-Württemberg also felt “mocked”.

At a virtual meeting with students from Heidelberg in early March, he said: »Compare your situation with that of other people.

Then you will see that there is no reason to get depressed. «Dozens of people outraged on Twitter - over the trivialization of mental illnesses and the disregard for the situation of students.

Support comes from teachers

You have to stop dismissing the fears and worries of the students as suffering on a high level, says Christine Buchholz, Professor of Business Administration at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences.

“I'm not saying it's wrong to close the universities.

But we have to talk about what that means. "

Only a few would win - the intrinsically motivated, conscientious and privileged, says Buchholz, privileged in terms of technical equipment, parental support, financial security.

»The others lose touch, their educational opportunities and thus social participation.

This is social explosive! "

"I experience a sadness and frustration that I have never seen in eleven years of teaching."

Roberto Lo Presti, lecturer at the Humboldt University in Berlin

The Berlin initiative “Not Only Online” also has the support of teachers.

Roberto Lo Presti, who teaches classical philology at the Humboldt University and has his office in the main building, will speak at the event on Monday.

The consequences of the permanent restrictions are clearly noticeable, he says.

"At first glance, the students get along with the digital course, but I experience a sadness and frustration that I have never seen in eleven years of teaching experience."

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Students at the symbolic auction of the Humboldt University

Photo: Paula Fredrich

Hope for the next prime ministerial conference

Prime Minister Kretschmann at least decided after talking to the Heidelberg students to enable face-to-face events for freshmen and to reopen university libraries as learning locations.

In the central library of the University of Würzburg, too, there has recently been a small number of workstations that can be booked for three hours.

Will this soon become a real plan for the universities?

Students and teachers are now hoping for the next round of talks between Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Prime Minister of the federal states on Monday.

Universities must be taken into account in the scenarios for the further course of action in the corona crisis, also demands the university rectors' conference.

In the meantime, some universities are working on their own test strategy, and students like Katja Ruete from Würzburg are postponing their exams.

In Berlin, Mayor Michael Müller (SPD) announced talks about possible opening perspectives for Berlin's universities;

the “Not Only Online” initiative demands that people have a say.

The main building of the Humboldt University was auctioned off to one of the participating students for 87 euros and two bottles of Club Mate.

Apparently higher education is worth that much.

Icon: The mirror