German students defy coronavirus to study abroad
Thousands of German students head abroad every year — but university experience and exchange programs have altered beyond recognition in the pandemic. With term starting, DW spoke to students who chose to stay overseas.
Explained: This is what studying in Germany will look like in autumn 2020
Germany remains a highly sought after study destination with lots to offer international students. With the autumn term set to begin, we spoke to students and experts to find out what it could be like to study here this year.
Children Across Europe Are Going Back to School. Here's How 3 Countries Are Managing It
GERMANY: …But returning to school looks different this year, with students divided up into “cohorts” of several hundred students. Cohorts are prohibited from mixing with one another and teachers are assigned to specific cohorts. The goal of the “cohort” model is to prevent entire student bodies from needing to quarantine in the case of an outbreak. Even within their “cohorts,” students are required to wear face masks in hallways and when entering classrooms but can take them off once seated at their desks. They are also advised to keep their hands off of any banisters and are required to wash their hands regularly. Classrooms have been reconfigured to allow for social distancing and better ventilation.
German schools and their 'roller coaster' reopening; As governments and teachers across the world debate how to best get pupils back in class, Katrin Bennhold speaks to one head trying to contain near-daily coronavirus outbreaks
Germany, which was far less affected at the peak of the pandemic, shuttered schools early on, then moved to a hybrid model of remote and in-classroom learning. Class sizes were smaller, and strict social-distancing rules helped keep infection numbers in check. But now a new experiment is underway: teachers and students have been summoned back to classes, testing whether the new vigilance is enough.
Social distancing and masks are mandatory on most school grounds, but rarely inside classrooms, despite recent advice from the World Health Organisation that children 12 and over wear masks when distancing is impossible. If students had to wear masks for several hours a day, the argument in Germany goes, their ability to learn would suffer. Instead, schools aim to better ventilate classrooms and keep classes separate so that each student has contact with only a few dozen others, and outbreaks can be contained.
Germany's departure from the more cautious, part-time reopening strategy is rooted partly in resource constraints: like most countries, it has too few teachers to split students into smaller classes and allow for social distancing. But several weeks into returning to school, educators and even virologists who were sceptical about reopening say that early results look hopeful. Despite individual infections popping up in dozens of schools, there have been no serious outbreaks - and no lasting closures.
Austrade regional market update on the impact of COVID-19 (as at 8 September 2020)
Germany: Despite the coronavirus crisis, foreign students’ interest in studying in Germany has continued. The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) announced this week that almost 60,000 prospective international students from 183 countries applied for a Bachelor or Masters program in Germany by the deadline of 20 August. While this equates to 80 per cent of last year’s applications, it exceeds numbers from the 2017-18 winter semester and all previous years. In the 2019-20 winter semester, 74,000 international students applied.
Germany will not issue study visas if programmes have transitioned online due to COVID-19
The German government has announced that only international students who are required to physically attend classes this year will be eligible for study visas. Without proof that they cannot complete courses online from their home countries, students will not be able to obtain visas. To that end, non-EU students will now require a “certificate of presence” issued by a German university as a first step in applying for a visa.
'Not a game': Europe pleads with young people to halt Covid-19 spread
Germany Increasing numbers of young Germans are becoming infected and currently more than half of new infections registered are of people under the age of 30. The incidence of 20- to 24-year-olds is now more than 30 out of 100,000, compared to just 10 for 40- to 49-year-olds and two among the 70- to 79 age group. While the 80-plus age group accounted for 17% of new infections in April, now it is just 4%.
NRW university assesses online teaching alternatives
Videos and online teaching seem to work, but all in all, they require a considerable effort and are impersonal, according to teachers interviewed at a North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) university. They look forward to engaging in attendance courses again in the winter semester but also want to make use of experience gained with new teaching formats.
Virus clusters at French universities give Europe a lesson
In Germany, most universities won’t start lectures before next month, and they have introduced numerous rules to ensure distancing, increased hygiene and bans on students’ parties. They are also expanding online teaching.
Students call for visa processing to resume
International students are calling on Germany and other EU member states to resume student visa application processing, voicing their concerns with the Twitter hashtag #EducationIsNotTourism.
German schools, reopened a month ago, have seen no major coronavirus outbreaks
It's been a month since German children began to lead Europe in the post-summer return to school, streaming back into classrooms and onto playgrounds, with little aside from masks to differentiate the scene from pre-coronavirus times. So far, epidemiologists are cautiously optimistic.
Back-to School Experiments Offer a Coronavirus Education
…In Germany, while some schools or classes have closed when a case of Covid was declared, an increase in infections has mainly been linked to people returning from vacations — as many as 40% of recent cases are thought to have been transmitted abroad. The others have mostly been traced to family gatherings and private events.