Berlin – How many face-to-face events do Berlin students have at the universities this semester? The attendance rates of the individual universities in Berlin emerged from a written request to the House of Representatives from the CDU’s spokesman for research policy, Adrian Grasse.
Since October 18, the Berlin universities have been in lecture time and are again allowed to offer face-to-face events in a 3G model. The motto was “as much presence as possible”. For this reason, at the beginning of the semester, many students were amazed at the limited presence in their departments. A medical student at the Charité told the Berliner Zeitung that he only had four days of attendance this semester and a student from the Humboldt University (HU) in Berlin was surprised that only three of her fourteen events were taking place in attendance.
HU: Only a third of the events take place entirely in attendance
Indeed, these two examples do not appear to be isolated cases. A table that is enclosed with the answer from the Senate Chancellery to the written question shows that only 31 percent of the courses at the HU Berlin are face-to-face. Some 32 percent of the events take place in person and the last good third continue to be online. Upon request, the Berliner Zeitung informed the HU that it would be making “a responsible, step-by-step return to face-to-face teaching in the transition semester” with the face-to-face offer.
The Free University (FU) and the Technical University of Berlin (TU) offer significantly more face-to-face events. With 75 percent of the events, the FU has the highest attendance rate of the major Berlin universities and the TU ranks second with 67 percent. However, these quotas are not evenly distributed across the degree programs and so situations similar to those described above arise for individual students: hardly any courses in attendance and a lot of study from the shared flat.
The students at the Alice Salomon University were particularly hard hit. According to the table of the Senate Chancellery, the University of Applied Sciences with a focus on social work does not offer full events in attendance and the hybrid events (partial attendance) are also given with only fifteen percent.
Expensive semester for the unvaccinated
The answer from the Senate Chancellery also addresses the question of the cost of rapid tests. The 3G regulation for face-to-face events in the university had led to protests in Dresden by the student initiative “Students stand up”, which was skeptical of measures. Due to the high prices for rapid tests, which are no longer free, unvaccinated people cannot participate in university operations for financial reasons, according to the allegation.
According to the Senate Chancellery, students at FU, TU and HU have to pay 14.90 euros for a quick test. With daily face-to-face events, studying without a vaccination becomes quite expensive here. However, the tests of the FU and HU are only checked randomly by security personnel. The TU works with stickers that can be stuck on student ID cards and provide evidence of the students’ vaccination status throughout the semester. At events with more than 40 people, security personnel control admission, and the respective lecturers are responsible for this.
Again too few dormitory places
Adrian Grasse (CDU), who made the written request, is particularly annoyed about the availability of dormitory places for students in Berlin. Their number is also mentioned in the answer from the Senate Chancellery: In the winter semester 2020/21, the Studierendenwerk still made 9,200 dormitory places available. This year there are 9188. Grasse: “I cannot understand how it can be that we are offering fewer places than last year, although more students are coming. We have had this problem for many years and the Senate has still not been able to find a solution to it. 3800 students are waiting for a dormitory place this semester, 800 more than last year. “
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