Comunicat Universität Oldenburg

Comunicat 06-05-2020

Dear colleagues,

We hope this email finds you all safe and healthy. As the COVID-19 situation continues to escalate globally, we would like to keep you updated regarding the latest news from the University of Oldenburg.

In Germany we still have massive restrictions with effects to everyone (e.g. border controls, travel restrictions or shutdown of public authorities). The restrictions are adjusted by the government every other week depending on the current development of the situation. As one result of these adjustments the government has decided to ease some restrictions gradually (stores and restaurants will open again, school teaching will be established for certain classes etc.).

This lockdown has also effects to academic life in the summer semester, which officially started two weeks ago. The presidential board assumes, that there won’t be any classroom-teaching in this semester. Therefore all schools have successfully started online teaching.

1. Incoming Students

All incoming students in the summer semester were successfully enrolled and receive intensified support provided by our Exchange-team and our student tutors.

We are currently working under the assumption that the academic year 2020/2021 will start as planned this autumn. Hopefully by then the situation will have calmed down and life will gradually get back to normal for everyone.

Therefore, we warmly invite you to nominate your students for the Academic Year 2020-21:

• July 15th, 2020 for winter semester and whole academic year 
• January 15th, 2021 for summer semester 

There are currently no changes to the nomination and application procedures for the winter semester 2020. Feel free to check the following websites for course options or general information regarding a stay in Oldenburg.

We are also very happy to introduce two suitable funding options for your students during their time in Oldenburg: the ‘Rotary-grant’, designed for students from our partner institutions from Eastern Europe, and the ‘Come to Oldenburg-grant’, designed for students from our English-speaking partner universities. Here you will find more information regarding the Rotary- and the Come to Oldenburg Grant.

2. Outgoing students

Most of our outgoing students have returned to Oldenburg in the meantime; some decided to stay at their host institutions. We warmly appreciate your support to all students in these challenging times.

With focus to the student exchange in 2021 we would encourage you to send us updated information in time, e.g. if your intuition plans to shift the exchange for international exchange students.

3. Staff Changes

From April 1^st we are very happy to welcome three new colleagues, who will support us in the work for our incoming and outgoing students:
 

• Ms. Christine Trappe will take over the responsibility as the institutional incoming exchange coordinator from Roman Behrens, who will focus his work upon the regional coordination for Africa, Asia, Oceania and Russia.
• Ms. Ann-Kristin Schuling is our new regional coordinator for the Americas (North, Central and South). She has overtaken this field from Tina Grummel, who acts as project coordinator for internationalizing the teacher education in Oldenburg.
• Ms. Karolina Dymek will complement our team with focus on Erasmus+ mobility.

If you have questions concerning your students who would like to study in Oldenburg, please send us a message to exchange@uol.de.
If you have questions concerning our outgoing students, please send a message to outgoing@uol.de.

Please also visit our university website for regular updates: https://uol.de/en/info-coronavirus

We hope you all stay safe and healthy!

Your

International Office

University of Oldenburg

Comunicat (09-03-2020)

Dear colleagues,

 We regret to inform you that there has been a corona virus outbreak in Germany and in the city of Oldenburg. As of March 9, there have been 1,112 confirmed cases in Germany, and 33 of the confirmed cases are in the federal state of Lower Saxony where Oldenburg is situated. In Oldenburg there are currently 3 confirmed cases. All infected persons have been put into quarantine. Our campus is not affected so far.

 The University of Oldenburg is monitoring the situation very closely, and we are following advice and guidelines given by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the German Federal Ministry of Health. Regular updates for students and staff (local and international) can be found on our website, which is updated continuously. Updates are also communicated to students and staff by email. As a preventive measure the presidential board has decided to restrict the access to the university to students and staff who have been to risk areas as declared by the World Health Organization (WHO). Students and staff affected are not allowed to enter the university 14 days after leaving known risk areas. If individuals show symptoms of infection, they are asked to stay in their homes and to contact their physician in order to receive further instructions.

 Please note, that - as of today - classes are conducted as usual, but we are ready to take appropriate measures if needed.

 Kind regards,

International Office

University of Oldenburg

Comunicat (02-03-2020)

Dear international exchange students,

dear colleagues,

 We hope you all are fine and busy in the process of finalizing your steps in order to start your stay in Oldenburg in the next weeks.

With this e-mail we would like to provide some information regarding Covid 19 and its spreading within Germany.

In Germany, so far only few cases of infection have occurred. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) continuously monitors the current situation, evaluates all information and coordinates official measures. It is to be expected that more cases will be imported to Germany.
Please be aware that the situation may change at any time and heed the updated warnings issued by authorities, particularly the RKI, and the travel advisories by the Federal Foreign Office.

For your journey to Oldenburg and your time here we would like to give you some hints and also useful recommendations:

• Please be aware, that suspected cases are monitored by the responsible authorities upon arrival in Germany. The Federal government has mandated general registration of air passengers from China, South Korea, Japan, Italy and Iran. For cross-border rail and bus travel, passenger locator forms are to be used.
• By order of the Federal Ministry of Health, travelers from all of China (including the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao) have been required to fill in landing cards giving information on their flight and stating where they will be staying for the 30 days following landing, as well as where they stayed in China, people they were in contact with and their current health status. Airlines are also required to distribute a multilingual information brochure on board flights. 
• With simple measures, you too can help protect yourself and others from infection, recognize symptoms of disease and find assistance during your stay in Oldenburg. Attached you will find some information regarding a responsible behavior.
• If any of the disease symptoms (coughing, a runny nose, sore throat and fever) emerge, avoid unnecessary contact with other persons and stay at home wherever possible. Get in touch with your doctor by phone and discuss how best to proceed, before going to his or her office.
  If you need assistance, feel free to call us (+49-441-798-4266). Please also check the attached Incoming Exchange Guide (see page 7) for contact details of doctors, who are located close to the campus.

Feel free to contact us in case of further questions.
We are much looking forward to welcoming you in Oldenburg!

 Warm regards

Roman Behrens