How do our students experience their everyday student life? Knowing this is crucial for improving the quality of studying and teaching at the University of Passau. The Quality Development Section regularly conducts surveys at different points in the student life cycle to gain a comprehensive picture of the student experience at the University of Passau.
The initial phase of studies is particularly important, as it lays the foundation for students' entire university career. In the incoming student survey conducted in winter semester 2023–24, the respondents gave us important feedback on areas in which they would like to see improvements.
Currently, the Examinations Office organises roughly 50 of the largest “central” examinations across all faculties, and coordinates dates and venues for the non-centrally organised examinations of the School of Business, Economics and Information Systems. The dates for the School of Business, Economics and Information Systems have been checked in consultation with the student committee to ensure that there are as few clashes as possible. In future, the aim will be to establish long-term exam timetables for the School of Business, Economics and Information Systems that are optimised as far as possible and that are announced to students in good time.
The exam registration and withdrawal deadlines are standardised across all faculties for reasons of transparency. A lead time of up to four weeks is required for resource-saving central and non-central exam organisation (including invigilators, rooms, printing of exam papers – the keyword here is sustainability), which limits flexibility to a certain extent.
However, overall responsibility for the organisation of non-centrally-set exams rests with the respective faculties and examiners.
In line with the Higher Education Accord, the Faculty of Law set up the working group “Reform of the introductory study phase”. This group is developing specific measures to optimise the training and continuing professional development of those teaching the introductory courses. In addition, the syllabus is being given a thorough review.
In addition to ad-hoc agreements within the departments and faculty, the faculty seeks to improve the organisation of courses and examinations to minimise course and exam clashes. Particularly when reforming existing study programmes and introducing new ones, close attention will be paid to a more balanced distribution of the course offering.
Various measures are being implemented to prevent course clashes within the degree programmes. One of these is the Orientation Week for new students, during which the SoBi student committee offers timetabling advice and provides immediate feedback on any clashes. Compulsory introductory lectures are being spread out over two semesters and there are several alternative courses per compulsory module, for example in the fields of political and social science. Furthermore, a flexible range of courses is offered to fill any gaps in each semester. Lectures are partially recorded and there is an informal exchange platform, especially for places in seminars for the Journalism and Strategic Communication programme.
In future, the faculty would like to further expand and intensify these approaches. This includes organising exam dates through central examination planning in order to avoid a concentration of exams in the last weeks of the semester, which would hardly be possible otherwise due to the few suitably large venues available for large module exams. Constant communication with the Language Centre should prevent exam dates being announced at too short notice.
The faculty is also planning to introduce a buddy scheme so that students always have a contact person, especially at the beginning of their degree programme, who can help them with problems such as identifying clashes or directing them to the right contact persons.
At the School of Business, Economics and Information Systems, the clash-free organisation of courses is a major challenge due to the large number of courses and degree programmes as well as the strong interdependence of courses with degree programmes in other faculties. For this reason, the faculty administration draws up a so-called course tableau one semester in advance with the involvement of the chairs, Room Planning and the student committee. This should avoid course clashes as far as possible, particularly within the same study section or specialisation. Students can give the faculty feedback on this process via the student committee.
A student assistant will be employed at the faculty to support the faculty administration in planning and checking course times.
The University of Passau is participating in the “Bayern Barrierefrei 2023” (“Bavaria barrier-free 2023”) programme and is working together closely with the State Building Authority and its contractors to rapidly push ahead with accessibility measures and to ensure that the University can operate without disruption or barriers, despite the current bottlenecks.
In 2023, based on the results of the previous survey, an accessible path was built, leading to the west entrance of the Philosophicum Building. Furthermore, the entrance itself was made barrier-free and equipped with tactile floor mats for the visually impaired, and stair lifts were installed in the PHIL Building and the Art Education workshop.
The next planned measures are a lift conversion in the PHIL, ZB and IM buildings, a barrier-free access path to the WIWI building (from Innstrasse leading up to the east entrance) and improvements to the barrier-free entrances to the ITZ and IM buildings (west entrance), all of which are scheduled for 2024.
Several measures were taken in 2023 to improve the University's catering facilities:
The cafeteria in the Audimax Building was reopened with a focus on vegan and vegetarian food options. Defective vending machines were replaced or repaired to ensure a supply outside the opening hours of the catering facilities. Despite the rising cost of food, meal prices in the refectory were kept constant.
Further improvements were implemented in 2024. The food truck on the Innwiese was reopened, and the opening hours of the cafeteria in the Refectory Building were extended till 18:00. In a further effort to work towards the sustainability goals, packaged food items are no longer offered in the refectory in order to be even more sustainable in this area.
