Key HE organisations demand measures to help students

The German Rectors’ Conference (HRK), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the German National Association for Student Affairs (DSW) have come up with new proposals to help students during the coronavirus crisis as they face financial hardship and disadvantages in taking exams and accumulating credits.

With summer semester lectures postponed for the time being, the HRK suggests that measures be taken to avoid disadvantages for students and junior scientists and scholars, while its member universities seek to maintain research activities to a maximum possible extent.

“The stringent regulations regarding social distancing that have been in force since 23 March to contain the coronavirus crisis show just how dynamic the current situation is,” says HRK President Peter-André Alt. “More and more institutions have had to scale down to emergency operation.” However, Alt stresses, universities will be doing all they can to maintain academic activities, also with the aid of digitisation.

Nevertheless, HRK Vice-President Ulrich Radtke points out that many students about to take exams or sit tests are having to prepare for them under difficult conditions that can only partly be compensated for by digital formats.

“This must not leave them at a disadvantage,” Radtke warns. “Balancing potential disadvantages, for example by not counting this semester against the standard period of study or by postponing test and exam schedules, is important for all students, but especially for those who have to look after children or care for others.”

Radtke also emphasises the important role that medical students in clinics play in supporting the health system.

The HRK states that the summer semester of 2020 has to be recognised as a regular part of studies or qualifications. “For the benefit of students, teachers and researchers alike, it must not be treated as a lost semester. The universities are making every effort to continue activities as comprehensively as possible,” Radtke explains.

“For students this means that the semester has to be recognised as a period of study, if they wish this to be so. And no gaps must develop in the biographies of researchers or lecturers in terms of their teaching experience or research performance.”

Employment opportunities declining

Welcoming the HRK’s approach, DAAD notes that Germany’s roughly 300,000 international students also need more assistance. “Around 100,000 international students urgently depend on income from part-time work,” stresses DAAD President Joybrato Mukherjee, warning that employment opportunities are now declining sharply.

“We can see that financial hardship is emerging which could lead to a large number of international students no longer being able to afford to live and study in Germany,” cautions DAAD General Secretary Dorothea Rüland.

DAAD is therefore negotiating with various funding bodies to enable universities to provide students especially hard hit by the crisis with transitional allowances. “Our aim is to prevent financial hardship and thus guarantee successful studies for international students in Germany,” Rüland explains.

The DSW, meanwhile, has called on the federal and state governments to set up an emergency fund for students who have to rely on part-time jobs. The fund could provide students facing hardship with unbureaucratic, swift support. According to statistics gathered by the DSW in its most recent survey, more than two-thirds of all students work part-time to earn a living.

“Now that employment opportunities for students are on the decline, they are facing considerable financial problems, especially since students are, as a rule, not entitled to any short-time allowance,” says DSW General Secretary Achim Meyer auf der Heyde.

“Politicians have demonstrated in these days that they are capable of swift and decisive action. This should also be the case for support for Germany’s roughly 2.9 million students – especially for those opting for part-time work in hospitals, supermarkets or other essential areas and thus also assuming their responsibility towards society as a whole.”

Michael Gardner, E-mail: michael.gardner@uw-news.com