Corona virus: Information of the Faculty of Science

30 March 2020

In principle, as few people as possible should be present in the offices at the same time. The exact number depends on the size of the room and thus on whether a minimum distance of 2 m (in each case!) can be maintained. Regular ventilation is absolutely necessary.

Also in laboratory rooms, the fewer people the better. However, several people can also work there at the same time, since the ventilation system ensures sufficient air exchange during daytime operation. Workplaces at laboratory benches should always be at least 2 m apart in all directions.

The most important requirement for working both in the office and in the laboratory area is to observe the hygiene measures already mentioned several times elsewhere (frequent hand washing, distance keeping, following sneezing rules, etc.). This also includes that persons showing any signs of respiratory infection stay at home for their own protection and for the protection of their colleagues.

Meetings of more than five persons are prohibited. Committe meetings and other important meetings are permitted (maintenance of the opteration mode).

30 March 2020

The university is not closed. Research and laboratory operation continue - with some restrictions. Wherever possible, i.e., where the tasks permit it, superiors are called upon to allow employees to work from home. Please do not just send all your employees home. Within the working groups superiors should ducument who works when from home. This also applies for shift work in labs or offices otherwise staffed by more people at the same time.

For further information, we refer to the official notes of our university.

18 May 2020

The university teaching was starting on Monday, 20 April, under unusual and difficult conditions. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, teaching in the form of classroom instruction on-site will be suspended. It is certain that the semester will take place in electronic/online formats only. On-campus teaching will be  further suspended until the end of the summer semester on 30 September.

For health  reasons, we recommend that you do not travel to Tübingen until further notice. Please attend online classes from your home. Unfortunately, we cannot  foresee when it will be possible to hold classes on campus again. When, and in what form, any physical attendance can be permitted in the coming months depends on the general developments. There will not be a complete return to conventional pre-Corona teaching in the immediately foreseeable future. The start of winter semester 2020-21 will move back to 2 November. The next winter semester will now end on 27 February 2021.

In the current situation, we are facing an unprecedented challenge. At this point, no statement can be made how the pandemic will affect the further teaching activities and examinations at our university. Please consult your department about e-learning formats.

31 March 2020

There is no general or fixed extension of any deadlines concerning exams or submission of theses. Instead, teachers and examiner boards of the Faculty of Sciences are encouraged to find appropriate and individual solutions in agreement with the students. The option of deadline extensions should be applied generously.

22 April 2020

Information on the courses are made public in alma. Additionally, all registered participants of a course should be informed about the exact procedure of the specific course by the lecturer by mail. Therefore, it is essential that all persons who are interested in a course register in alma. Otherwise there is no opportunity to contact the participants!

For questions regarding subject-specific topics, please contact your course councellor or your Dean of Study.

Informationen on orientation and on how to set up a timetable for new students: https://uni-tuebingen.de/en/study/organizing-your-studies/orientation/

The following departments offer additional information:

17 May 2020

On request of the supervisors, exams and practice-oriented events (e.g. lab work) are possible, if they can´t be replaced by digital formats. The reponsible examinors or the heads of the practical courses will inform you, in time.

The rules for infection protection have to be respected. This includes a minimum distance of 2 m, the current valid prohibition of the right of entry (persons who had contact to an infected person within the last 14 days, or who have symptoms of respiratory infection or increased temperature) and wearing a mask (mouth-nose cover) if you enter the university. If you have contact to other persons closer than the minimum distance of 2 m during a course, regularly, special precautions must be taken, like the formation of "buddies" (the same two students working together for the whole course). You will get more information by the responsible teachers. Take sufficient food and beverages with you, as long as the canteen and caeferia are not yet in operation.

Examinations: The seating places are marked. The entry is controlled by the supervisory staff. In case you do not follow the rules, you can be excluded from the exam.

Notes for students in higher risk categories: You decide by yourself whether you can attend an exam or a practical course. You will have no disadvantage regarding examination deadlines if you submit a medical certificate.

Notes for pregnant women: According to the current state of knowledge, pregnant women do not in principle have a higher risk than the general population of becoming infected with the new type of corona virus, or of a more severe course in case of infection.

30 March 2020

Information of the Rector´s Office

• Corona virus: Information for students

Information of the International Office

• Information on the corona virus for Outgoings

• FAQ for international students (incoming)

01 May 2020

Teaching will initially only be possible in online formats which do not require physical attendance on campus. The restrictions do not concern online courses. This can help us by solving problems - but it won´t eliminate them. 

The special situation of the Faculty of Science is the high number of practical laboratory courses. They are indispensable for our study programs. Please offer a reasonable range of courses, which includes the aquisition of credit points. It is important and necessary for all teaching staff to transfer at least the first sections of their classes into an appropriate electronic form by 20 April. On our current information, it is certain that the first phase of the semester – until after the Whitsun/Pentecost break – will take place in electronic/online formats. When, and in what form, any physical attendance can be permitted in the coming months depends on the general developments. However, at the moment it appears certain that there will not be a complete return to conventional pre-Corona teaching in the immediately foreseeable future.

It is our duty as teachers to develop a special emergency service with full commitment. This doesn´t have to be and can´t be perfect. In case of doubt, we have to be prepared to reduce the high quality standards of our courses. Please consider which courses - or parts of courses - could be offered online. Don´t just think about lectures. Also clearly structured tasks for self-study elements and interactive formats are possible. What is important is that all classes planned for the summer semester are offered and carried out. If you teach classes which require physical attendance, we request that you offer parts of the course which can be taught online starting April 20, and reserve parts of the course requiring attendance for a later time. If the subject-specific demands of a degree program make it necessary, the class may be extended in individual cases.

Extention of submission deadlines

Due to the heterogeneity of requirements, we do not extend the deadlines for the submission of written examination papers or theses, generally. We ask you to find individual generous and pragmatic solutions for your students, adjusted to the framework conditions. Please keep in mind, that the libraries are closed and the access to textbooks is limited.The aim is to have the libraries re-open to the public again in May, with restrictions. However, the libraries will only reopen once a concept for use and security is introduced that combines a high quality of service with an equally high level of protection against infection for employees and students.

At a later time, when we return to our usual on-campus events, a lot of offers have to be coordinated. Before you share informtion with your students, please discuss within your department and take the use of space management into account. As soon as the date of reopening of the usual on-campus events is predictable, the Central Management Office will initiate the coordination of interdepartmental and export courses.

30.04.2020

In order to allow a reliable course of study during the corona crisis, the University of Tübingen complemented the existing exmaniation and study regulations with a statue - at least for the summer term 2020.

15 May 2020

On-campus examinations

All on-campus examinations (written tests and single oral examinations) can be carried out on the basis of a special permit by the Central Management’s Office. Please file your application to
the Vice Dean of Studies studiumspam prevention@mnf.uni-tuebingen.de for examinations at the Bachelor's and Master's level
 the team of Academic Affairs promotionspam prevention@mnf.uni-tuebingen.de for doctoral examinations

Application procedure:
Examinations in centrally managed lecture halls:
 Please clarify the availability of suitable lecture halls with the lecture hall management.
 Please reserve the relevant lecture halls directly with the lecture hall management.
 Please clarify the necessary access procedures.

Examinations in decentrally managed lecture halls:
 Please reserve the relevant rooms in the usual way.
 The building commissioner has to agree with the usage of the room as a examination hall. Please ensure to maintain a minimum distance of 2 m, sufficient air exchange, and further measurements against infectious diseases (see Regulations for on-campus examinations (in German only)).

Single oral examinations:
 Please ensure to maintain a minimum distance of 2 m and a sufficient air exchange.
 In total, a maximum number of participants may not be exceeded.
 Only those persons are allowed to participate, who are necessary for the examination.

Every singel examinations has to be authorized and documented. Please use the following structure for your application (by mail):
 Applicant
 Name of the examination
 The examination was announced 4 weeks in advance:   yes/no
 single examination (only 1 candidate with examiners)?   yes/no
 If no single examination: estimated number of participants:
 Examination is planned in centrally managed lecture halls?   yes/no
 Examination is planned in decentrally managed lecture halls?
     If yes: Do you have the agreement of the building commissioner?
 Will students of other subjects participate? If yes: students of which subjects?
 Why is it not possible to postpone or to replace the course?
  Why is it impossible or difficult to use a digital format?

Online examinations

Examiners are responsible for single oral online examinations within bachelor and master study programs. Essential requirements for oral examinations are the voluntariness of all participants, as well as the clarification of the technical environment in advance.

15 May 2020

Please postpone laboratory work, if possible.

Singel laboratory studies

On a case-by-case basis, the performance of singel lab studies can be carried out on the basis of a special permit by the Central Management Office (studiumspam prevention@mnf.uni-tuebingen.de). The application shall include:
a brief description of the situation
Why is it impossible or difficult to use a digital format?
Why is it not possible to postpone or to replace the course?
The security measures have to be explained.

Degree theses in the lab

Degree theses (bachelor and master) in the lab or other final degree activities tied to specific devices are possible, if it should turn out that the interruption of the laboratory activity leeds to exceptional hardness. Please file an informal application and send it to studiumspam prevention@mnf.uni-tuebingen.de.

Following measurements have to be ensured to prevent infections:
Keep a minimum distance of at least 2 meters to all colleagues.
Restriction to very few people working at the same time
A potential time restriction for the duration of use
Strict monitoring of these measurements by the supervisory staff 
Use a mouth-and-nose cover, if the safety distance cannot be guaranteed.
When sharing lab equipment, suitable surface cleaning has be carried out.

Research activities in context of an employment contract (HiWi contract, for example) or laboratory work in context of dissertations are not concerned, taking the measurements into consideration to prevent infections.

From the Faculty of Science´ point of view, doctoral studies belong to research operations. Therefore, they are covered by the current associated precautions in avoidance of infections. For information concerning doctoral studies, please visit the website Doctoral studies - current information and changes because of Corona crises.

15 May 2020

On-campus courses are still forbidden. Nevertheless, it is possible to get special permits for lab courses, if special safety measures are beeing considered: Basic rules to protect against infections during lab courses (in German only).

Every singel application has to be authorized and documented. The application should explain why it is not possible to postpone or to replace the course, why it is impossible or difficult to use a digital format, and why it is absolutely required. A permit requires a individual concept for infection protection. The responsible person for the lab course can apply for a permit using the follwing online application form.

Guidance for developing a concept for infection protection:
Develop seating plans: a minimum distance of 2 m has to be fulfilled regularly between the students and teachers
 Estimate, wether the minimum distance can not be maintainend on the typical routes of the students within the lab or while entering and leaving the lab.
Descrition of the working steps: where cann´t the minimum distance be maintainend regularly (e.g. handling equipment together)?
temporal and spatial organisation of breaks
information on the ventilation within the labs
What has to be done while groups change (enough breaks, ventilation, cleaning, ...)?
Measurements to protect against smear infection: is all equipment wipeable? Is cleaning material on-site?

Please take the measurements for infection protection seriously! Please consider, which elements of the course could be realized online seperately.

10 April 2020

When planning your courses, please keep in mind:

• The netwoks will run at full capacity. Please offer as many asynchronous courses as possible.

• Untill the channel capacities are known, please limit interactive offers to the bare essential.

• It is difficult to concentrate on long lasting lectures. Therefore, please use small time-limited elements.

Online formats need a clear organisational structure:

• Please provide information in alma as early as possible on which online format your class will be using, and how students can participate. Students have to be informed quickly, when their courses start and where to find the digital offers on the learning platforms. Alma also allows you to send an email to all participants so that you can explain what you are doing in the area of online teaching.

• When using synchronous courses / streaming times, please stick to the usual time frames of the usual on-campus events. Otherwise there will be conflicts with other courses, offered at the same time.

• Also think about timeframes for question and the compensation for tutorials.

Please also visit the website of the University’s digital teaching task force (E-Learning-Portal): Digitale Lehre im SoSe 2020

18 May 2020

Useful Websites

• Website of the University’s digital teaching task force (E-Learning-Portal): Digitale Lehre im SoSe 2020 (in German only)

• Digital Examinations (in German only)

• LEAD: Online Lehren und Lernen – erprobte Materialien und nützliche Tipps für Lehrkräfte und Lernende (in German only)

• IT support during the corona virus situation

• Data protection and video conferencing (in German only)

• Collection of ideas of the Faculty of Econoics and Social sciences: Möglichkeiten von Online-Lehre (in German only)

Practical tipp from the Department of Computer Science: recording of lectures

Windows: The simplest method is to record lecuters by the Xbox Game app. It is quite simple and you can even see the mouse curser. You can find a good manual at the Website of Computerwoche (in German only).

Mac OS: Video recording of slides with QuickTime Player; Screen recording of slides; You can use the integrated microphone of your Mac.The files are not too huge if you devide the video into two parts (1. and 2. hour). QuickTime saves videos in a .mov format. This format is still quite big. Therefore, you can convert the .mov file into a mp4 format with ffmpeg (https://www.ffmpeg.org).

24 April 2020

The digitalisation of teaching, but also the shift of numerous meetings to the internet is currently leading to an increased use of special apps and programs for video conferencing. Depending on the software, their use raises different data protection issues.

Important information about the programs used at the University as well as tips for using them in compliance with data protection regulations can be found on a website that the computer center (ZDV) has set up. (in German only)

03 April 2020

For technical and organisational aspects concerning e-learning (Ilias and other services of the University Library): edl-supportspam prevention@ub.uni-tuebingen.de.

Aspects concerning moodle, timms and further e-learning services of the Center for Data Processing (ZDV): supportspam prevention@zdv.uni-tuebingen.de.

Teachers of the Universty of Tübingen with questions about or interest in video recording, live streaming, publishing of existing audio and video documents or the integration in learning platforms: timmsmasterspam prevention@zdv.uni-tuebingen.de.

For didactical questions: andrea.fauselspam prevention@uni-tuebingen.de (Hochschuldidaktik)