Welcome

Dear students,

I would like to welcome you as a new student at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences at TU Dresden. We are very pleased that you have chosen TU Dresden and our faculty and we wish you a good start as well as much joy and success in your studies.

As you know, the winter semester 2020/21 will take place under difficult conditions. The corona-related restrictions not only prevent me from welcoming you personally at the beginning of the semester, they also require quite significant changes to teaching concepts for almost all courses. Lectures in particular will be held largely in digital formats this semester - as they were in the previous summer semester - and new formats will also be used for many other forms of teaching. This does not have to be a disadvantage, and the past summer semester has shown that innovative ideas and forms of teaching have often emerged from necessity. However, it will certainly require a great deal of commitment and flexibility from all those involved - you as students as well as the lecturers and academic and technical staff. All lecturers are aware of this and will try to offer you as complete and high-quality a teaching programme as possible, even under these difficult conditions, even if the implementation of new forms of teaching sometimes involves considerable additional time and technical effort. Please understand if new forms of teaching do not always work one hundred percent at the first attempt, and feel encouraged to offer constructive criticism wherever you see potential for improvement. Experience from the summer semester shows that both learners and teachers miss direct contact with each other in digital teaching formats. Please use the technical possibilities offered by the various digital teaching formats to minimise this deficit. Questions are always welcome!

Our faculty unites - uniquely in Germany - the three environmentally related scientific fields of Forest Sciences, Geosciences and Hydrosciences under one roof. Approximately 2,200 students are enrolled in our Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes, and teaching and research are carried out by 47 professors and a broad academic staff. The interdisciplinary and international orientation of our faculty creates great synergy potential in teaching and research.

In the Humboldtian sense, research and teaching are inseparable at a university. Central topics in the research of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences are the sustainable development of the human habitat and the monitoring of the Earth system on global, regional and local scales. As a student, you also have the opportunity to get involved in research - whether in the form of theses on current research topics or by working on research projects as a student or research assistant. In this way, you can already gain professional experience in the scientific field during your studies, get to know the structure of a university and make contacts - all with an attractive salary. Make active use of your opportunities here, too!

With this in mind, I wish everyone a successful winter semester 2020/21!

Prof. Dr. Hans-Gerd Maas

Dean Faculty of Environmental Sciences