CHE's Coronavirus Survey Confirms that our Students are Highly Satisifed with the School's Implemented Measures

 

A recent CHE (Centre for Higher Education) survey on how universities have handled the Coronavirus pandemic has confirmed that our students are highly satisifed with the implemented switchover to fully digital teaching activities.

The online survey was conducted by the CHE within the framework of the CHE Master's ranking survey from April 20 to August 31, 2020. CHE's data base comprised a total of 6,774 students from 236 subject areas at 124 German universities. The surveyed students came from the 1st to the 6th semester of study programs in business administration and economics, business administration and engineering, and business informatics.

One result was that the School of Business and Economics at RWTH Aachen University was rated particularly well by the 62 students studying with us who took part in the survey. On a scale ranging from 1 (excellent) to 6 (very poor), students responded to various questions about organisation of studies during the Coronavirus pandemic and the framework conditions for digital teaching activitites. The School achieved the following ratings:

• How the School dealt with the Cornavirus pandemic overall: 1.48
• Opportunity to take examinations: 1.41
• The range of digital teaching formats: 1.28
• The technological framework conditions for digital teaching activities: 1.39

A pre-requisite for the School's impressive achievements was the tightly meshed and well coordinated University-wide cooperation at RWTH Aachen University. Apart from the successful crisis management conducted by the University's management, the School was also competently supported during the production of teaching videos by the University's service unit "Media for Teaching", which is available to all of its Schools and Faculties.

A few words on this important topic from the Dean of the School of Business and Economics - Univ.-Prof. Dr. Peter Letmathe:

"In the summer semester 2020, we were able to provide our students with a range of digital offerings at practically no loss of quality. For over ten years now, we have been investing in the digitization of our teaching activities, for instance internet-based learning environments and serious games and videos that we make in our own film studio in order to supplement our lectures. The fact that the 'Covid-19 semester' was so successful is ultimately the result of superb team-play. The Rectorate of the University coordinated the process excellently through the provision of clear-cut and timely regulations and of appropriate software, and through close communication with the School. Our Academic Advising Services did not only manage to organize examinations under Coronavirus conditions but were also available to advise our students at all times. The School's Chairs and staff worked very hard to bring any remaining course content into digital format while at the same time maintaining close interaction with our students. In the future, we will, wherever appropriate, continue to provide digital offerings as a supplement to our real-life teaching activities while at the same time maintaining direct contact with our students, which we deem to be a very important factor."

Overall, the CHE found that the surveyed Master's degree students confirmed the impression that German universities, in a concerted effort by university adminstrations, university teaching staff, and university students, have coped well with the various effects of the Coronavirus pandemic.

For more detailed information, please take a look at the relevant document, which can be viewed here as a download on the CHE's website.