DSW: Need for support for students

• Deutsches Studentenwerk (DSW) demands a vaccination strategy as well as a federal state promotion program for students to reduce pandemic-related learning delays and psychosocial stresses
• DSW Secretary General Achim Meyer auf der Heyde: "After three digital semesters, the psychosocial stresses on students are immense, and the consequences will accompany students in the coming years"
• Meyer auf der Heyde: "If the federal states promote learning support for younger children, they must also promote additional learning support for students through tutors and, above all, expand the psychosocial counseling centers of the Studentenwerke"

Berlin, 27 May 2021. On the occasion of today's "Vaccination Summit" of the federal states, Deutsches Studentenwerk (DSW), the association of Studentenwerke and Studierendenwerke in Germany, expresses on the one hand a vaccination strategy also for students and on the other hand a federal state promotion program also for the psychological and social counseling centers of the Studentenwerke. The students would have to fight after three digital semesters with increasing psychosocial stress, whose consequences would accompany them also in the next years, so the DSW.

DSW Secretary General Achim Meyer auf der Heyde explains:

"The German government's bridging assistance program for students, consisting of a temporary interest-free KfW student loan and grant, was an important step in alleviating students' financial needs. Alone, however, this is no longer enough to help students with psychosocial burdens resulting from what are now three digital semesters.

In addition to a clear testing and immunization strategy and an opening perspective, students now urgently need expanded support and counseling services from universities and Studentenwerke to effectively address pandemic-related learning delays and psychosocial stress.

If the federal states provide funding for learning support for younger children, they must also set up a similar program for students. In particular, this includes a federal state promotion program for additional learning support through tutors, for example, as well as the expansion of psychosocial counseling by the Studentenwerke.

Students have endured three digital semesters without complaint, but that is now taking its tribute: demand for psychosocial counseling is rising sharply at the Studentenwerke. Students are struggling with depressive moods, feelings of loneliness in digital isolation, questions about the meaningfulness of such studies, or fears of debt.

It is about time that the federal states finally turn their attention to students."

News online:

https://www.studentenwerke.de/de/content/impfgipfel-neben-impfstrategie-dringend