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Many students miss learning in society
Photo: Ute Grabowsky / Photo library via Getty Images
How are the students doing before the start of the winter semester?
The results of a new survey conducted by the Universities of Hildesheim and Münster among 2527 students across Germany cannot fully answer this question.
However, the study provides an impression of the mental state of the students, a good two weeks before the start of the winter semester.
And this impression is: not good.
The team of researchers had already asked the almost identical group about their situation last summer.
Then as now, the focus of the non-representative surveys was on personal well-being and the current study situation.
Positive: Elimination of travel times and more flexibility
Compared to the first survey, it shows that for many the technical hurdle of online studies has decreased.
While this was a stress factor for 42.6 percent in the previous year, only 29.1 percent of those surveyed perceived it this summer.
The respondents also find it easier to work undisturbed.
63.5 percent now state that they can study in peace, a year ago it was only slightly more than half, 51.1 percent.
Above all, the infrastructure that was lost due to closed universities remained a challenge for almost a third of those surveyed.
On the other hand, the positive thing about the digital semester, 70.8 percent said, was that there were no longer journeys and that you could do your own work more flexibly (2020: 66.7 percent).
What is still lacking: social life
The respondents still lack the university as a social place enormously.
More than 91 percent said that they would miss the conversations with fellow students “something” or “a lot”.
The same applies to exchanges with teachers: more than 80 percent of those surveyed said they did not have direct contact.
The results are similar to those from last summer.
more on the subject
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Students in the corona crisis: Dear politics, why are you ignoring us? A cry for help from Lukas Kissel
Student protests in the pandemic: They want to go back to the University of Helene Flachsenberg, Kristin Hermann, Katharina Hölter and Sophia Schirmer
The feeling has also worsened with regard to social life.
72.8 percent said they longed for “parties or other events for students”.
In the first survey it was only 60.6 percent.
Almost half of all students now also want things like university sports back, compared with just under 39 percent last year.
Researchers support the need for "social openness"
Overall, the psychological stress among the students has therefore increased further.
Last year, almost 55 percent of those surveyed said they had "had emotional complaints due to the pandemic," this year it is 65.5 percent.
The negative effect was stronger if the students did not come from an academic background.
The results of the survey, the researchers emphasize, made it clear that there was a great need for a “social opening”.
To do this, however, the concerns of students would first have to move into the focus of the corona policy.
Little has changed in the past year and a half.
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