Universities – Wiesbaden – Fewer new students in the summer semester in Saxony – Education

Wiesbaden / Dresden (dpa / sn) – The number of new students in Saxony fell by around a third in the summer semester 2020 compared to the previous year. According to the Federal Statistical Office, 1,341 people began studying in Saxony in the summer semester. In the same period of the previous year there were therefore more than 2000 freshmen.

The Federal Statistical Office also recorded a decline in new students across Germany: In the 2020 summer semester, a total of around 71,600 students began studying at a German university for the first time, 8,000 fewer than in the 2019 summer semester. There is a connection between the decline and the corona pandemic, it was said. For example, significantly fewer foreign students began studying.

In Saxony, too, the decline is particularly noticeable among foreign first-year students. According to statistics, 931 foreign students began studying in the Free State in the summer semester 2020; in the previous year it was almost 1,500.

Despite the pandemic, the number of all students at German universities has increased. 2,723,100 students were enrolled at a university in Germany in the 2020 summer semester. That was 0.8 percent more than in the same period last year.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210129-99-222019 / 2

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