Impact of Coronavirus on German Universities

The coronavirus has impacted every walk of life. The world has come together to fight it, with all its might. Germany has been in the eye of the storm for a while now. The international students who are studying there already and the ones who have applied for the upcoming semesters are facing issues. The German universities have taken cognizance of the dynamic situation and have implemented stringent actions.

Common measures across universities

The German universities have shut down all facilities in their campuses.
Libraries, sports centres and all other student facilities have been closed.
On-campus teaching activities have been suspended till April 19, 2020.
Student service, examination office and admission office are open in most of the universities, but the services are mostly rendered by e-mail or phone.
Only the staff employed in critical operations are allowed to work in the campus. Others have been advised to work from home.
All conferences, workshops or any other public events, on or off campus have been postponed.
People who have visited high-risk areas within the past four weeks or have come into contact with an infected person have been instructed to inform the university authorities immediately.

Information from DAAD

DAAD has declared that there will not be any individual scholarships for international students for studying in Germany for Summer semester 2020. However, the support for scholarship holders who are unable to return to their home countries due to travel restrictions will be continued.
All the individual programmes – University summer courses, RISE/WISE internship programmes, in DAAD funded universities have been suspended for summer semester 2020.

Information from various university websites

We have collected and collated information from various universities on their current and future measures to handle this pandemic.

University list

University of Paderborn

Application and Enrolment for Bachelor's and Master's programs

The University of Paderborn has issued a statement that the deadlines for applications and enrolment for this Summer Semester 2020 still remains valid.
All courses and public events at the university have been cancelled until further notice. The official welcoming events for the first-semester students that were supposed to be held on April 1st and April 24th have also been cancelled.
The deadline for submitting the certified copies for Bachelor’s degree is extended till 31 August 2020 at the latest. This deadline is also applicable for enrolment in Master’s programmes. Please check the university website for further details.

Technical University of Munich (TUM)

Application Deadline for Winter Semester

TUM has extended the application deadline for their Master’s degrees until June 30, 2020 for the winter semester 2020/21.

Summer Semester Deferred

TUM has issued a statement to the international students who have received their admission for the summer semester 2020 to defer their studies to the winter semester 2020/21.

Technical University of Kaiserslautern (TUK)

Information on Application deadline for the summer semester 2020

The Technical University of Kaiserslautern (TUK) has extended the registration deadline for all the courses of study until April 20, 2020.
For the study programmes with open admissions, they will accept applications until March 27, 2020. The students can send the complete application by post or by e-mail in the pdf file format.

Darmstadt University (HS Darmstadt)

Application Deadline

Darmstadt University has upheld the application deadline of July 15th 2020.

Summer Semester 2020 Information

Currently, lectures and courses of the summer semester are postponed until April 20, 2020.

Technical University of Berlin

Considering the enormity of Covid-19 outbreak, the TU Berlin Summer University will be adhering to instructions provided by the TU Berlin’s Crisis Committee.
With effect from March 11, 2020, the TU Berlin will be cancelling all events until July 20, 2020, as a measure to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. Hence, Term 1 and Term 2 of the TU Berlin Summer University, which were set to commence on June 8, 2020 and July 6, 2020, stand cancelled.

Esslingen University

Esslingen university has taken several precautionary measures like most other universities.
However, admission deadlines remain unchanged.
Applications for Winter semester 2020/21 is accepted between April 15 and July 15 .
The application deadline of March 31 and May 31 for the Graduate School remains.
The application deadline for Graduate School remains the same between March 31 and May 31.

University of Freiburg

The University of Freiburg website has elaborately mentioned the preventive measures and actions that need to be taken with respect to coronavirus. The institute’s University medical centre is catering to the medical needs of the students.

Bonn University

The Bonn University has postponed exams and has interrupted teaching. The beginning of the lecture period for Summer semester has been deferred to April 20, 2020. However, the end date remains unchanged.

Additionally, we have attached screenshots of emails sent out from few universities to students about the current enrollment process.

SRH Heidelberg

SRH university has suspended classroom teaching. Courses are being taught using digital teaching and online tools. The university has kept enrollment open till April 20th. However, the Summer semester will not be postponed. Online classes for first semesters begin on April 1st.
Screenshot of email from the university sent to international students.