A TUD study shows great willingness to get vaccinated. 2,000 people received the vaccination during the two-week campaign on campus

Staff and students at TU Dresden have demonstrated an above-average willingness to get vaccinated; the COVID-19 vaccination rate at the university is more than 30% higher than the Saxon average. This was the result of a large-scale survey conducted among TU Dresden members.

According to the survey, 87% of staff and 78% of students had already been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of August. 3 and 4 percent respectively had already received a first vaccination or made an appointment to be vaccinated between early August and early September at the time of the survey. An additional 2 and 4 percent of unvaccinated staff and students expressed a high willingness to receive the vaccination but had not yet booked an appointment.

At the beginning of the winter semester at the start of October, a second survey was conducted specifically amongst first-year students at TU Dresden. This painted a similar picture: 83% of the first-years had already been fully vaccinated, 5% had received their first vaccination, and 1% had made an appointment for vaccination.

© TUD

"If we include all these figures, we can assume that the vaccination rate at TU Dresden is now 92% among staff and 87% among students," says Prof. Karl Lenz, Director of the Center for Quality Analysis (ZQA) at TU Dresden, who conducted and evaluated the scientific survey. Compared to the current vaccination rate in Saxony - 56.8% (as of Nov. 2, according to figures from the Robert Koch Institute) - this is approx. 36% higher among the staff of TU Dresden and 30% higher among the students.

Prof. Lenz accredits this high vaccination rate and willingness to get vaccinated to the proximity to and familiarity with scientific thinking: “Individuals working in the field of science have experience in dealing with situations involving complex information. This obviously has a positive effect on the willingness to get vaccinated”. Only 3% of staff and just under 6% of students surveyed in the summer completely rejected the vaccination offer. Among first-year students, the rejection rate was 3%.

Among the unvaccinated, concerns about health consequences, perceived social peer-pressure, a perceived low individual risk of infection, and lack of information were most frequently cited as reasons against vaccination. "Further efforts to provide accurate information, therefore, has the potential to increase the vaccination rate even further," said Karl Lenz.

With this in mind, TU Dresden, alongside the State Capital of Dresden, organized a two-week vaccination campaign directly on campus at the start of the winter semester. Without the need to book an appointment, staff, students, but also non-university members could spontaneously get vaccinated against COVID-19. Almost 2,000 people took up this offer. From November 8 to 20, there will be an additional vaccination campaign in the Auditorium Center (HSZ): https://tu-dresden.de/corona/impfung

Due to the high and increasing rate of COVID-19 infections in Dresden and Saxony, the Rector of TU Dresden, Prof. Ursula Staudinger, strongly advocates the continuation of the mobile vaccination teams as well as other low-threshold vaccination offers. "Our vaccination campaign in October has demonstrated just how high the demand is. We must do everything in our power to continue to increase the immunization rates in order to maintain working and learning conditions that are as safe as possible, even with the higher infection rates in the winter."

Background information on the survey at TU Dresden
The Center for Quality Analysis (ZQA) at TU Dresden conducted two surveys, both of which were full surveys. All students who were enrolled in the summer semester and all staff, including guests who have a TU email account, were surveyed. A total of 17,671 people participated in the first survey; the response rate was very high at 41%. The survey of first-year students took place in the first two weeks of October. All students who enrolled in the first semester of a degree program at TU Dresden up to this point were included. A total of 1,898 first-year students participated; the response rate reached a record high of over 50%.

Contact person
Prof. Karl Lenz
TU Dresden, Center for Quality Analysis (ZQA)
+49 351 463-35311