Start of studies in times of Covid-19

At the moment, the Corona situation is relaxed, but it is not yet possible to foresee how it will develop in the direction of autumn/winter and with possible new virus variants. The university will continuously assess the development dynamics of the pandemic, the vaccination progress and the legal and political framework conditions and decide on (partial) attendance or digital teaching on the basis of comprehensive internal consultations. The protection of our students and employees remains a top priority against the backdrop of the Corona pandemic. Our Corona portal provides you with an up-to-date overview of measures and regulations.

But even in times of possible lockdowns, the situation with regard to continuing education offers opportunities: Perhaps your individual time capacities, due to restrictions in other areas of your life, make it more feasible to deal with the topic of continuing education or to actively tackle continuing education directly. If the topic is on your agenda, the Professional School offers you various digital options for this in case of doubt. You will benefit from our broad experience in online-based teaching: online study programmes, lectures, seminars and continuing education have been part of our portfolio for many years.

Visiting the campus, having personal counselling interviews on site or taking a look at courses in Lüneburg - we may still not be able to offer you these options as usual. Instead, you can take advantage of the following digital information and advice services:

Personal (video) counselling

Our course co-ordinators are still available for personal counselling interviews. Depending on your preference, you can have these by phone or video meeting.

Taster studies digital

Events of our study programmes currently run exclusively digital. However, this also offers new digital taster opportunities. Many of our study programmes have opened up events for you as an interested party, so that you can both get a professional impression of the respective study programme and get to know the digital learning formats better.

Virtual office hours

Many of our degree programmes offer open virtual office hours. Please contact the study programme coordinator.

Information day

Our (digital) information days take place twice a year in January and Jun/July. More information

• Flexible entry into studies via modular studies: Do you want to make good use of free time and start your studies as soon as possible? Join our current degree programmes now within the framework of a modular study programme - either digitally or in person - and already complete your studies. You can then apply and enrol for the next course of study and have your achievements and fees credited. The corresponding study programme coordination team will be happy to advise you on the individual entry options. Our continuing education portal provides an overview of open modules.
• Participation in digital continuing education programmes: With our live-online-seminar series or our online modules on the digital change, there were, in addition to some (mainly) online courses of study at the Professional School, purely online offers even before the pandemic. These are of course still available to you for further education to the usual extent.

What exactly does digital teaching mean anyway? The possibilities here - also for interactive formats - are far more diverse than one might initially imagine. Of course, lectures transmitted to the digital Live-Online-Seminar room are an important part of digital teaching, but not the only one. At the Professional School, we have been successfully using a wide variety of digital learning formats in our study and continuing education programmes for many years and have a proven portfolio of possible digital courses.

For lectures, seminars and group work, the video meeting and Live-Online-Seminars tools we use offer a wide range of possibilities for implementation. For example, you can first follow the video lecture and the presentation of a lecturer, then switch from the plenary to work in small groups in separate digital meeting rooms and work there on joint documents or presentations, which you then - again in the large plenary - present and discuss. Live teaching formats with exchange possibilities are supplemented by video and other learning material that can be accessed at any time, collaboration and exchange outside of fixed appointments is supported by discussion forums and other tools such as the Academic Cloud.

Tutorials and digital consultation hours ensure continuous support, not only from you as a student, but also from our teachers in the implementation of digital teaching.

The government of Lower Saxony has amended its ordinance on the Corona pandemic several times. In the meantime, courses at universities are in principle also possible again in presence. Hygiene and distance regulations that are currently still in place are intended to prevent further spread of the corona virus. However, suitable courses continue to be held digitally.

Possible changes in the course schedule due to possible changes in the framework conditions in autumn because of the pandemic do not mean, however, that your planned start of studies will be postponed. At the Professional School, courses in all phases of the pandemic were transferred to online or hybrid formats, and all degree programmes started as planned. Even in the online formats, you will continue to benefit from the advantages of a face-to-face course: corresponding digital lectures and seminars will usually take place live and you will still have the opportunity to interact and discuss with your lecturers and fellow students.

Teaching formats that only work in face-to-face form are given priority or are made up at a later date without extending the duration of your studies.

In addition to the opportunity to profitably invest time slots that may currently be freed up in further education, travel and accommodation costs of part-time studies are also partially eliminated, as some courses continue to be held digitally. In addition to the technical content, you will also learn about various digital tools that are used by renowned universities and companies worldwide, and thus expand your digital competence. And if you are not completely satisfied with the digital transfer of the courses to online teaching, you are welcome to attend the relevant seminars again after returning to face-to-face teaching at no additional cost and take the examinations in face-to-face form.

Unlike many online degree programmes, which rely mainly on uploading material (study letters, literature, recorded e-lectures), our degree programmes retain presences - only in the case of digital events, these take place in the digital space. Online meeting rooms, virtual office hours, live online seminars and other interactive formats ensure that you are still in one - digital - place with lecturers and fellow students at the same time, so that the element of personal exchange, which is central to our face-to-face degree programmes, is not neglected. The contact persons from your degree programme remain available to you.

As soon as a return to attendance is permitted without restrictions, the courses in our attendance study programmes will again take place in the usual form on site in Lüneburg.

Digital alternatives are also offered for examinations. You can find out exactly what they look like in your chosen degree programme by contacting the respective programme coordinator. Alternatively, it is also possible to postpone examinations if you prefer to take them in person.

In order to implement the currently recommended measures to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2 as quickly as possible and to protect students and teachers from possible infection, we had to completely change our teaching activities. Unfortunately, the services with which German universities are regularly "virtually on the road" cannot provide the necessary performance under the current circumstances, so that we as a university have switched to alternative providers at short notice.

With ZOOM, the requirements of our students and lecturers for good online teaching can be implemented in the best possible way. To ensure that your personal data is as well protected as possible when using ZOOM, our media and information service has configured ZOOM in all functional areas so that only a minimum of data is transferred and stored. All presettings have been selected to give users* the best possible control over the disclosure of data. An overview of the configurations of ZOOM at Leuphana for data economy as well as information on the use of ZOOM can be found here.