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The medical degree at the Berlin Charité was a long-cherished dream for Elena Mühle.
"When I was accepted, I was euphoric," says the 19-year-old.
“My half of the social year in the hospital strengthened my desire to become a doctor.
I am highly motivated. ”However, the young woman also needs that strong inner drive.
When she took up her place at university in April of last year in the middle of the first wave of the corona pandemic, normal studying was out of the question.
The “Ersti-Woche”, intended as an orientation and introductory exchange for the newcomers, was canceled, instead there was a video tour across the campus.
Mühle found the lectures on the Internet, seminars were held via online conferences.
The examination courses, the core of the practice-oriented medical training at the Charité, have been postponed until further notice and replaced by instructional videos.
Student Elena Mühle
Source: Mühle private archive
“I was totally overwhelmed,” says Mühle.
“Everyone was mumbling around like that.” Quite a few of her fellow students would have saved themselves the move to Berlin - everything took place online anyway.
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In these weeks Elena Mühle will start her third semester. She has now had a few days of attendance, and the examination courses are being made up as far as possible, accompanied by rapid tests. For this minimum of laboratory work and practical elements, exceptions are to be made for universities in the new Infection Protection Act, even for incidences over 165. Most of the teaching takes place online in the third lockdown semester.
“In view of the dynamic situation, nobody can reliably predict when exactly university operations will be able to return to classroom teaching,” says Peter-André Alt, President of the University Rectors' Conference. A sustainable and broad opening of university operations is certainly only possible if students and teachers have been vaccinated. "We hope that we can achieve that in the coming winter semester."
For the students who have been sitting in front of their laptops in their shared rooms for over a year, it sounds like a distant dream.
“Studying also means encounters on campus, exchange, and discourse with the scientific community.
A zoom session cannot do that, ”says Lys Malin Thomsen.
The 21-year-old is studying theater, media and English in Bayreuth, and she is also involved in the federal government's youth strategy.
“We go to school for years and look forward to everything that comes after that.
We are losing all of that now, ”says Lys Malin Thomsen
Source: Thomsen private archive
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She knows the feeling that currently unites her generation and that can perhaps best be described as "slowed down". “We go to school for years and look forward to everything that comes afterwards: independence, meeting new people, moving out, discovering our own paths, taking a semester abroad, doing internships, developing personally. We are losing all of that now, ”she says.
At the same time, many got into financial difficulties.
Classic student jobs in the catering industry have collapsed in the Corona crisis, while the rent has to be paid more and more.
BAföG only get twelve percent of students.
“Many even had to move back to their parents as a result,” says Thomsen.
She finds it paradoxical that one hears so little about the situation of the students.
“Everyone talks about school.
But the universities do not even appear in the discussions about openings. "
"Too little attention is paid to the fact that we are the next generation who will later lead and advance this country." After all, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier found warm words at the beginning of the semester.
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"In the false expectation of leaving this pandemic behind us quickly, we as a society perhaps had too little focus on what this hard and deep cut, this slowing down means for young people," said the Federal President in a speech in the Berlin State Library.
For many students, the crisis has serious social and economic consequences.
Federal President Steinmeier commemorates the dead from the corona pandemic
Around 80,000 people in Germany have already died of or with Covid-19.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier speaks here at the central commemoration, in which Chancellor Merkel is also participating.
Source: WORLD
In fact, it had taken months to launch a grant for students in need last year.
100 to 500 euros can be requested depending on the need - but the account must be evidently empty for this.
Cheap student loans can also be taken out through the Reconstruction Loan Corporation.
"In any case, we will maintain our bridging aid for the students as long as this is necessary," says Education Minister Anja Karliczek (CDU) WELT AM SONNTAG.
A fundamental BAföG reform, as requested by the university rectors' association, is not in sight.
Psychologist sees considerable suffering
Aside from the financial bottlenecks, there are also emotional problems that increasingly afflict students.
Winfried Schumann is the head of the psychological counseling service at the university and student union in Oldenburg.
People who do not get along well with studying in the home office get in touch with him.
“Loss of motivation, work disruptions and avoidance behavior are the most common phenomena we have to deal with,” says Schumann.
"Many are at the end of their resilience and feel worn down and exhausted." The level of suffering is considerable.
The advice center first provides practical help here, giving tips on how the home office day can be organized in such a way that it does not melt into an unstructured pulp.
“In most cases we can get the current crisis under control in five to ten hours of counseling,” says the psychologist.
"In the case of more serious psychological problems, we are the guide to medical treatment or therapy."
"They find it difficult to take the fact that their lifetimes just run away," says Wilfried Schumacher
Source: Schumacher private archive
Schumann reports that many students are currently struggling with periods of depression.
“Many are just sad that everything seems to be running away from them.
They find it difficult to take their lifetime just drifting away. ”Even Schumann becomes sentimental when he walks across the orphaned campus.
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Kjell Papra had also imagined his studies differently.
“I wanted to immerse myself in the world of knowledge, meet interesting new people, have a lot of discussions - and of course also have a party.” Now the economics student is sitting in his youth room with his parents and is frustrated.
Students in Corona times Kjell Papra
Source: Papra private archive
He finds it difficult to organize himself in online studies, he lacks the pressure and social control of face-to-face teaching. Out of consideration for the family and because he is a risk patient himself, Papra strictly adheres to the corona rules. “It is right to limit yourself now in order to save lives,” says the 19-year-old. However, he has one wish: that the elderly should display the same altruism when it comes to the heart's issues of the young. "We also hope for the solidarity that we bring with the climate crisis."