There will not be a “zero semester” at universities in North Rhine-Westphalia. NRW Minister for Culture and Science Isabell Pfeiffer-Poensgen wants to give students and universities security in their future planning. RWTH has been offering courses online since April 6, 2020. The NRW Ministry of Culture and Science made the following announcement on April 7, 2020.
Due to the increasing spread of the coronavirus in North Rhine-Westphalia, the start of the summer semester at universities in the state was already postponed to April 20 back in mid-March. It is still unclear whether the contact-reducing measures currently in effect can expire on April 20 or whether and in what form they may have to be continued. Therefore, the Ministry of Culture and Science, together with the NRW State Rectors’ conference, the universities of applied sciences, and the art and music colleges, has agreed to start the current summer semester from April 20. This will initially begin as an “online semester”. The universities have promised to make a wide range of courses available online as part of the solution. This ensures that the summer semester can take place and avoids a so-called “zero semester”, which would put students at a disadvantage.
In the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education at the end of last week, all the states in Germany agreed on the common goal of avoiding a situation where the summer semester would not be credited.
“The health of students and instructors is still our top priority. Since it is currently not certain when universities will be able to resume regular attendance classes, flexible and pragmatic solutions are now required. Starting the semester with online classes is therefore a good alternative. In this way, we are giving the more than 780,000 students in North Rhine-Westphalia and our universities security for planning the coming months,” explains Minister of Culture and Science Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen.