The summer semester at Hochschule Geisenheim University and other Hessian universities is scheduled in presence. In view of enhanced protection and prevention strategies, a high vaccination rate of almost 95 % among students, superior testing strategies and tailored hygiene concepts, the Hessian Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts and Hessian universities have decided to resume face-to-face teaching. The Ministry and the universities have agreed that the universities will exhaust all possibilities offered by the Coronavirus Protection Ordinance for the higher education sector. Teaching staff and students are asked to prepare for a return to on-campus operations.
“Face-to-face classes are important because of the social aspect of higher education. Traditional classroom teaching is an integral part of university life and helps students to identify with their place of study. Of course some digital formats will remain but there must be a good balance between online and on-campus teaching,” says University President Prof. Dr. Hans Reiner Schultz. “There’s more to university education than pure studying. Interacting with teachers and fellow students and maintaining interpersonal relationships are equally important but the social aspect of university has suffered during the past two years.”
A few days ago, Angela Dorn, Hessian Minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and the Arts said: “The universities have taken on a great deal of responsibility in recent semesters because they are places where a large number of people come together in a confined space, so special restrictions were necessary to help stop the spread of the virus. I would like to thank all students, teachers and staff members: Thanks to their flexible solutions and responsibility during these hybrid semesters with a mixture of digital formats and classroom teaching we have been able to get through the pandemic.”
The digitization process of university teaching, which has been accelerated due to the pandemic, is to be secured and expanded in the long term. Digital teaching formats can be a viable supplement to classroom teaching, particularly if the quality of such formats is improved.
