Winter Semester to Begin Online

Unfortunately, there will be no in-person welcome and orientation events for beginning students this winter semester. About 7,500 new students are expected to take up their studies at RWTH.

 

RWTH expects to welcome about 7,500 new students in the 2020/21 winter semester, including 5,700 beginning students in Bachelor’s programs and about 1,800 new Master’s students. Due to the extended period of enrollment, these numbers may be subject to change. RWTH is looking forward to welcoming its new students, even though the winter semester will begin as an "online semester" due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Unfortunately, this means that the Welcome Week events, which traditionally included a Campus Rally, will have to be canceled. This also applies to the other in-person events scheduled for the beginning of the semester. However, the ESA organization team and the student RWTH councils have joined forces to organize an online program of events, which makes it possible for the new students to get to know the University, the city and their degree program via a broad range of online events. These include, for example, the welcome address by the RWTH Rector Ulrich Rüdiger, the first-semester orientation events, and the information events on the different degree courses.

The university management, the pandemic crisis management team and the AStA student committe would therefore like to thank the many student tutors who have joined forces to master this task. "The decision to cancel face-to-face meetings was not an easy one. We all hoped to be able to start the winter semester as normally as possible in this difficult year. Now we want to make the best of the situation, even under the present circumstances," emphasized Professor Aloys Krieg, RWTH’s vice-rector for teaching, AStA chairwoman Lena Schrader, and ESA spokesperson Andreas Mimberg.

All tutors are fully aware of their responsibility to make sure that the current coronavirus regulations are complied with. Furthermore, no private in-person meetings are planned. Supported by Campus Security, student stewards will see to it that the coronavirus regulations will be adhered to on campus. The ESA Team will be offering a phone hotline for citizens with questions surrounding Welcome Week: From October 26 to 30 between 11am and 7pm, the team can be reached at 0241 80 93777.

All teaching activities, with the exception of courses and events that require in-person attendance, such as lab practicals and excursions, are to be held remotely until further notice.