According to the International Office of the MLU, during this summer semester, the total amount of students who normally apply for an exchange study program in Halle has decreased by one third. This was due to incoming students who cancelled their semester abroad completely or postponed it (about half of the 50 guest students who registered for the summer semester), students who were already studying in Halle, went back home before the crisis started, but couldn’t get back (some of them facing the problem of having their living permit expire soon), and students who were indeed already in Germany, but hurried to return to their home countries as soon as the pandemic started. Furthermore, some partner universities have found themselves in the need of cancelling their exchange programs, which has obviously contributed to the fact that the number of applications this semester decreased.
At the moment, not only are the people in charge at the International Office experiencing more work and complications when handling or restructuring a student’s semester abroad, but also students from Halle, who were already abroad but decided to return to Halle, had to deal with numerous of issues. Like handling some financial formalities in the foreign country, which got harder to process due to the fact that the student and contact person were now in different countries.
Concerns are now focused on the winter semester 2020/21. Almost 200 students from the MLU have now applied for an exchange semester in some European countries. But then again, many students have again already postponed it since some countries like Norway and Sweden or often big cities have suspended their exchange programs for the upcoming semester.
Nevertheless, the International Office at the MLU still recommends students to not lose hope. So, whether you are a student who would like to go abroad in the following semesters or become a guest student at the MLU, it is important to keep the deadlines in mind.
You can find the whole information on the previous topic in the following link:
Gestrandete Studierende und eilige Bürokratie
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