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Hamburg (dpa / lno) - The University of Hamburg with its around 44,000 students is also planning the summer semester 2021 largely digitally despite the corona vaccinations that have started.
"I think a pure attendance semester is unrealistic - the corona vaccinations would have to have a mass effect in the spring," said university president Dieter Lenzen to the "Hamburger Abendblatt" (Monday).
Young people would most likely not have been vaccinated by then.
"That is why we are planning the summer semester with mostly digital teaching in our almost 200 courses."
Because as long as the distance rules apply to all rooms, face-to-face events are only possible for a maximum of 15 percent of the students.
After the end of the pandemic, the university will return to seminars and lectures in attendance, said Lenzen.
"But it would be negligent not to continue positive experiences with digital teaching."
For example, at events with a maximum of 30 participants, teachers found that addressing them personally in video seminars worked better.
Students also spoke up more often.
"The inhibition threshold is apparently lower than in a large lecture hall, where all eyes are on you."
In addition, communication between students and teachers outside of the seminars and lectures was more intensive, for example via chats and e-mails.
The technical equipment for digital teaching had improved during the corona pandemic, said Lenzen.
"Otherwise, however, the rooms of the university are not equipped in such a way that university lecturers can simply be filmed and the recordings can be quickly put on the Internet."
Until now, IT teams that attended courses took care of this.
"For the future, we need a digitization offensive that includes hardware and software as well as the appropriate training for staff," demanded Lenzen.
This does not only apply to Hamburg.
“Germany has slept through digitization at universities so far.
The pandemic gives us the chance - the last one maybe - to change that. "