Coronavirus: information for students
Welcome to the hybrid winter semester 2020/21 at the European University Viadrina. On this page you will find all important information about studies, teaching and university life in the current situation. Please check this website regularly.
Last update on October 26nd:
- Information and advice centres
Content:
- Entry for study purposes - quarantine obligation
- Hygiene measures at the Viadrina
- Correct behaviour in case of disease symptoms and suspected cases
- Access to university buildings
- Extension of the standard period of study
- Hybrid Winter Semester 2020/21
- Information on your degree programme
- Information for newly arriving international students
- Examinations, term papers and theses
- University library
- Financial support
- Information and advice centres
In accordance to the Brandenburg Quaratine Regulations (in German), the 14-days quarantine obligation does not apply to students who enter Brandenburg from Polen for the purposes of study. In Poland, there is no quarantine obligation for students from the EU.
To reduce the risk of infection for employees or students in the Viadrina buildings, the following hygiene measures apply:
- Wearing a mouth-and-nose protector is mandatory in all Viadrina buildings. This does not apply when you are at your working desk and can make sure you can keep a required distance of 1.5 m.
- Regular hand washing with soap for at least 20 seconds is one of the most important hygiene measures.
- The ventilation systems in all Viadrina buildings are operated in accordance with current infection protection standards
- In all offices and seminar rooms, lecture halls, sanitary areas and corridors, door handles and light switches are disinfected once a day, as are handrails in all stairways, lifts and public photocopiers.
- Separate rules (available in German) apply to the University Library. Outside the workplace, the obligation to wear a mouth-nose cover applies in the reading room.
- Separate cleaning of the rooms takes place before examinations. Students who write exams will receive detailed information about hygiene and behavioral measures in a confirmation e-mail before their exam.
- We kindly ask you to use the Corona Warning App of the Federal Government. The app helps to identify chains of infection and supports the health authorities in containing the pandemic..
We kindly ask you to observe the current instructions of the Federal Centre for Health Education (in German).
Please stay at home if symptoms of illness occur and contact your family doctor.
Primary contact:
In the case of direct contact with a person who has been proven to be infected with the corona virus (i.e. a positive test has been performed), the guidelines of the Federal Ministry of Health apply: You must stay at home and report immediately to the responsible health authority (Health Office Frankfurt (Oder), Health Authorities Berlin). The Health Office will inform you about all necessary steps.
If you, as a Viadrina student, are affected, please send a short message to praevention@europa-uni.de. If you have planned to attend classroom lectures, please contact your teachers to agree on how you can make up for missed lectures and, if necessary, compensate for academic achievements.
Secondary contact:
In the case of indirect contact, i.e. in cases where no direct contact has taken place but where, for example, a family member is the primary contact person or a suspected case due to acute symptoms, the public health authority does not normally impose quarantine. If there are no compelling reasons that require your presence on campus, e.g. an important meeting at a seminar or an examination, we recommend that you stay at home until a test result is available. In this case you should also contact your teachers.
Quarantine regulations of the state of Brandenburg
Please inform yourself about the current quarantine regulations of the state of Brandenburg (available in German).
All University buildings are open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. (GD is open until 4 p.m.).
The University library is open Monday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. as well as Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. for university members and external guests carrying a library card.
The cafeteria (Mensa) in the Gräfin-Dönhoff building is also open to external guests from Monday to Friday, 11.30 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Coffeebar in Viadrina main building is open for public guests daily from 9 am to 2 pm.
Events and meetings are also possible with external guests, provided that distance and hygiene regulations are observed.
When planning public events with external guests, it should be checked whether the aim and target groups can also be reached through an online format. If possible, plan your public events in online format. For the purpose of tracing chains of infection, the contact details of participants and guests must be entered in a form (available in German).
Access to Viadrina buildings is prohibited for persons who have contracted the virus or are suspected of having contracted it.
There are no restrictions for students on their way to university - even for commuters from Berlin districts that exceed the seven-day incidence of 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants.
The Collegium Polonicum is accessible subject to special residence rules (information in German).
In order to mitigate the negative consequences of the corona pandemic on the course of studies, the state of Brandenburg has decided to extend the standard period of study. For students who were enrolled in the 2020 summer semester, the standard period of study is extended by one semester for each individual student.
BAföG recipients whose maximum funding period (standard period of study) ended with the 2020 summer semester can receive training support until the end of the 2020/21 winter semester. Those who have not yet applied should do so immediately. The submission of the certificate of achievement is also postponed by one semester.
Please note that these regulations do not apply to Staatsexamen degree programmes. Their standard period of study is not covered by the Brandenburg Higher Education Act.
Lectures of Winter Semester 2020/2021 have been postponed by two weeks and will begin on 2 November 2020 and end on February 19, 2021.
In the upcoming semester, we enable you to study and teach on site as much as the hygiene and safety regulations and the room capacities allow. Therefore, Winter Semester 2020/2021 will be a hybrid semester in which courses will be offered online, as blended learning and classroom formats.
Here you will find information (in German) on digital studying.
The course catalogue for the hybrid winter semester 2020/21 is available in viaCampus. There you will find information on each course, whether it is planned in online or attendance format. Whether an online course is synchronous or asynchronous can be found in the corresponding Moodle course, as well as further details on the course schedule. During October the Moodle courses will be opened by the teachers.
In any case, the most up-to-date information on the format and schedule of a course can always be found in the respective Moodle course.
Due to the distance regulation, a maximum number of persons is defined for all teaching rooms of the Viadrina. Please note that participation in a classroom course is therefore only possible after prior registration (usually via Moodle) and up to the maximum number of participants.
In order to be able to trace chains of infection, teachers are obliged to document attendance at face-to-face events. This is usually done by means of an attendance list for each attendance appointment, which is destroyed after a four-week retention period.
Special workstations for online teaching
In the basement of the reading room (training room) of the university library, nine workstations are available for online teaching.Active participation in online teaching (speaking and audio) in this area is only permitted with headphones and microphones. An efficient WLAN connection is available for students.
Other special workstations are currently being set up to participate in online teaching. Information on this will be posted here in good time before the start of the lecture period.
Student learning and working groups can book free teaching rooms via the central room booking system (raumbuchung@europa-uni.de) by naming a responsible person. When using rooms, you are obliged to do so,
- the maximum number of persons in the respective room (marked on the room) must be observed;
- to keep a record of presence ("attendance list") indicating the date and time of the event and the name and telephone number or e-mail address The proof must be kept for four weeks before it is destroyed;
- ventilate the room regularly - every 90 minutes at the latest - for approx. 5 minutes To do this, open the windows wide to allow for a quick airing.
Rental equipment (notebooks) for students
It is now possible to borrow a notebook including headset for the duration of an exam or a project. The loaned equipment will be handed out in the Logenhaus after making an appointment and drawing up a loan contract. Please contact coworking@europa-uni.de for this purpose.
Please contact the Admissions Office (zulassung@europa-uni.de) if you have any questions regarding the application and enrolment process.
Applicants with international school or university degrees please contact Viadrina International Affairs (international@europa-uni.de).
If you have any questions regarding the content or subject matter of the respective study program (here directly to our study program), please contact the program coordination or the student advisory service. Contacts can be found on the corresponding websites:
- Faculty of Social and Cultural Sciences (in German)
- Faculty of Business Administration and Economics
- Faculty of Law (in German)
- European New School of Digital Studies
You are coming to Frankfurt (Oder) soon to start your studies or your semester abroad at Viadrina?
Please note the important hints and information regarding the arrival from risk areas, quarantine regulations and support offers of the Studentenwerk and Viadrina.
If you have further questions, please contact the team of the International Office.
Oral exams
- Provided that all parties involved agree and hygiene precautions are followed (maximum of three persons in a sufficiently large room), oral examinations can be held in presence form.
Arrangements for examinations, written term papers and theses:
- Faculty of Law (in German)
- Hinweise zum ersten juristischen Staatsexamen (in German)
- Faculty of Social and Cultural Sciences (in German)
- Faculty of Business Administration and Economics
- Master of European Studies (in German)
- Master of Mediation and Conflict Management (in German)
- Language Centre (in German)
Use of the reading room
The University library is open Monday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. as well as Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. for university members and external guests carrying a library card.
A maximum of 260 people may use the reading room at any one time. User data are registered electronically to be able to trace chains of infection in the event of a proven infection. Therefore, please bring your user card at all times. Please follow our distance and hygiene rules when visiting the library.
Special workstations for online teaching
In the basement of the reading room (training room) nine workstations are available for online teaching. Active participation in online teaching (speaking and audio) is only permitted in this area with headphones and microphones.
Information:
For general requests please contact ub_ausk@europa-uni.de, for requests regarding interlibrary loan please contact ub_fernl@europa-uni.de.
Library of the Collegium Polonicum
Lending and return of media during the closing of the reading room (in German and Polish)
Ordering electronic copies from the stocks (in German and Polish)
Depending on your personal situation, you can take advantage of the following support:
- Bridging assistance for students in pandemic emergency situations
Students in acute financial need can apply for a grant between €100 and €500 per month as a bridging allowance. In addition, the federal government's measures include a temporary exemption from interest on the KfW Student Loan until the end of March 2021 and the opening of the KfW Student Loan for foreign students. - Hardship fund of the State of Brandenburg (Information in German)
The state of Brandenburg supports students whose applications for federal subsidies were unsuccessful, but who can prove that they are in need according to the criteria of the hardship funds, with one-off subsidies of 300 euros. Furthermore, interest-free hardship loans of up to 500 euros can be applied for.
In all cases please contact the Studentenwerk Frankfurt (Oder). Further information and your direct contact person can be found at www.studentenwerkfrankfurt.de.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the service points by telephone or e-mail:
- The Service Point for students is open Monday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and can be reached by telephone on 0335 5534 4747 and by e-mail.
- Psychological counselling and pastoral care
- Pandemic, BAföG, part-time job, rental contract: FAQs for students.
If you have any questions or are looking for support, please do not hesitate to contact us: praevention@europa-uni.de.
Useful links:
- Federal Centre for Health Education
- Coronavirus information for International Students in Germany
- Answers of the Robert Koch Institute to FAQs (in German)
- News from the Federal Ministry of Health (in German)
- Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA)
- Current contact regulations of the State of Brandenburg (in German)
- Information about Corona from the State Ministry of Health (in German)
- Informationen about Corona from the Frankfurt (Oder) city administration (in German)