Coronavirus

Kalenderwoche 13 /2022

Update of 01.04.2022 for students: Start of 2022 Summer Semester

Dear Students,

The 2022 Summer Semester will officially start this coming Monday. For many of you, this will be the first “normal” semester.

For the past two years, studying and teaching were massively curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying measures enacted to contain the virus. The upcoming semester will finally be a presence-based semester once again.  Digital formats will supplement in-person teaching where it is pedagogically effective to do so. Student workstations, including those in the library and the Main University Hall, will soon be available again.

Starting on Saturday, April 2nd, new Coronavirus regulations will be enacted nationwide and many COVID-19 related measures will be eliminated. We will adjust our Organizational Decree in accordance with these new legal regulations. In doing so, we will continue to take responsibility for protecting the health of our students and staff members. Planned in-person university operations means that seats in classrooms, lecture halls, laboratories, and student workstations will again be fully available without capacity limitations. In such settings, it will not always be possible to maintain sufficient social distancing. This is why we have decided – with respect to the health of our students and staff members – to keep the mask requirement in force for the time being. You are therefore required to continue wearing a medical-grade mask during academic courses, in the library and University Hall, as well as in areas of public traffic in university buildings until further notice. The previous exceptions to this, including not having to wear a mask while teaching courses, while playing university sports, working in laboratories, or during musical instruction, will remain in effect. You are also of course allowed to take off your mask to eat, but when doing so, you must also take care to maintain social distancing. Instructors are allowed to take off their mask while teaching, but must maintain 1.5 meters of social distancing during that time.

Proof of 3G status in order to attend academic courses or to use the library is no longer required.  For this semester, you will therefore no longer need a sticker for your Uni Card.

Once again, we want to take this opportunity to urge you to continue taking the threat of the Coronavirus seriously. There are some people for whom a COVID-19 infection can have serious consequences. We should therefore continue to show our solidarity in our actions – by complying with the mask requirement and going home immediately if you feel ill.

We hope that you have a great start to this new semester, and that you enjoy being able to interact face-to-face with your fellow students and instructors. Make plans to meet up to have lunch together in the cafeteria, play sports, and work together in study groups. Take this time to do all the activities that will come to define and enrich your studies here.

Kind regards,

Dr. Stephan Becker, Chancellor

Prof. Dr. Birgit Lütje-Klose, Vice-rector for Education and Teaching

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Sagerer, Rector

Update of 01.04.2022 for instructors: Start of 2022 Summer Semester

Dear Instructors,

The 2022 Summer Semester will officially start this coming Monday. For many students, this will be their first “normal” semester.

For the past two years, studying and teaching were massively curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying measures enacted to contain the virus. The upcoming semester will finally be a presence-based semester. In-person teaching will be the rule, already now at the beginning of the semester. Digital formats may be used to supplement in-person teaching where it makes sense pedagogically to do so. Hybrid or digital formats have proven to be effective for large lecture-based courses in particular. Digital formats that fully replace in-person teaching should only be used on a case-by-case basis, and should not subvert the return to presence-based instruction.

Student workstations, including those in the library and the Main University Hall, will soon be available again. Many of you might have to take a moment to get used to standing in front of a packed classroom or lecture hall again, but we are sure that everyone is largely looking forward to this.

Starting on Saturday, April 2nd, new Coronavirus regulations will be enacted nationwide and many COVID-19 related measures will be eliminated. We will adjust our Organizational Decree in accordance with these new legal regulations. In doing so, we will continue to take responsibility for protecting the health of our students and staff members. Planned in-person university operations means that seats in classrooms, lecture halls, laboratories, and student workstations will again be fully available without capacity limitations. In such settings, it will not always be possible to maintain sufficient social distancing. This is why we have decided – with respect to the health of our students and staff members – to keep the mask requirement in force for the time being. Students are therefore required to continue wearing a medical-grade mask during academic courses, in the library and University Hall, and in areas of public traffic in university buildings until further notice. The previous exceptions to this, including not having to wear a mask while teaching courses, while playing university sports, working in laboratories, or during musical instruction, will remain in effect. Masks are of course allowed to be taken off to eat, but in doing so, care must be taken to maintain distance. Instructors are allowed to take off their mask while teaching but must maintain 1.5 meters of social distancing during that time.

Proof of 3G status is no longer required to attend academic courses.

We hope that you have a great start to this new semester, and that you enjoy being able to interact face-to-face with your students once again.

Kind regards,

Dr. Stephan Becker, Chancellor

Prof. Dr. Birgit Lütje-Klose, Vice-rector for Education and Teaching

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Sagerer, Rector

Update of 01.04.2022 for employees: New corona regulations

Dear Colleagues,

On Saturday, April 2nd, new Coronavirus regulations will be enacted nationwide, and this means that many of the previous measures will no longer be in force. We will modify our Organizational Decree in accordance with these new legal regulations. As part of this, we will continue to take responsibility for protecting the health of our students and staff members.

Instead of a comprehensive Organizational Decree, our measures will now be based on two mandatory hygiene protection concepts: one for teaching and one for workplace service operations. The new Organizational Decree’s rules governing Home Office and trust-based working hours (Item 3 in the previous Organizational Decree) will continue to apply without change until April 25th. All other regulations are being replaced by these above-mentioned hygiene protection concepts. For staff members who fall under the applicable scope of statutory FlexWork regulations, this also applies from April 25th, 2022.

On Monday, our Summer Semester will begin as a fully presence-based semester. Planned in-person university operations means that seats in classrooms, lecture halls, laboratories and student workstations will again be fully available without limitations. In such settings, it will not always be possible to maintain sufficient social distancing. This is why we have decided – with respect to the health of our students and staff members – to keep the mask requirement in force for the time being. Masks are required not only to classrooms, lecture halls, and the library, but also in the Main University Hall, all areas of public traffic, and communal social areas in university buildings. A medical-grade mask (at a minimum) must be worn in these places. The mask may be removed in order to eat, but care should then be taken to maintain social distancing.

In light of the current rates of infection, we should continue to reduce in-person contact. Please continue to take advantage of the option to work from Home Office. Please get tested when you are working on campus and you come into contact with colleagues. Bielefeld University will continue to provide you with rapid tests for self-testing (see workplace hygiene concept).

More information is available at www.uni-bielefeld.de/coronavirus.

Once again, we want to take this opportunity to urge you to continue taking the threat of the Coronavirus seriously. There are some people for whom a COVID-19 infection can have serious consequences. We should therefore continue to show our solidarity in our actions: by complying with the mask requirement when on campus, getting tested regularly, and going home immediately if you feel ill.

Stay healthy and well.

Kind regards,

Dr. Stephan Becker, Chancellor

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Sagerer, Rector