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"You are now a member of this university - help shape your university!"

For the start of the winter semester 2021/2022, the TU Ilmenau welcomed the freshmen, their relatives, friends and family on 9 October 2021 with the Festliche Immatrikulation in the Audimax and, for the first time, also via live stream on the Internet. In their honor, the university administration and the deans of the five faculties moved into the festively decorated lecture hall to the cheerful choral sounds of "Gaudeamus igitur" and welcomed their new students into the academic community.

TU Ilmenau/Barbara Aichroth

After months of videoconferencing and online teaching, it gives me particular pleasure not only to stand in a packed lecture hall again, but to welcome you face to face - here in the Audimax, our university's largest lecture hall - as you begin your studies!

With these words, University President Prof. Kai-Uwe Sattler welcomed the young people who have just started their studies at TU Ilmenau - and immediately had some good news for them:

I can announce a semester - your first semester of study - that will largely take place in presence, i.e. here at the university.

Ceremonial matriculation also via live stream for the first time

For those who were not able to attend the ceremony - especially international students who were unable to travel due to the Corona pandemic - the event was broadcast for the first time via live stream on the YouTube channel of the TU Ilmenau and will be available there for three months. The event was musically framed by the Chamber Choir, conducted by Manuel Bethe, and the Academic Orchestra of the TU Ilmenau, conducted by Pamela Mayorga Tellez.

In his welcoming speech, the president encouraged the freshmen in particular to get involved in the university community and social discourse: "Ilmenau also has [besides your studies, which is why you are here] countless clubs with a very active student community. If you want to tap beer in a club, put on music, make radio, construct racing cars, learn new sports: climbing, diving or rugby, if you want to play in an orchestra or join "Engineers without Borders" - you can do it here! And if your dream club doesn't exist yet, just found it. You are now a member of this university - help shape ours, help shape your university!"

The TU Ilmenau sees itself as an international and cosmopolitan campus, where living and shaping together is characterised by mutual respect and tolerance:

You will meet fellow students and staff from over 100 nations here - take advantage of this perhaps unique opportunity to experience other cultures, customs and views in friendship and peace and thus broaden your own horizons.

"Technical innovation is urgently needed: new, sophisticated processes, clever inventions"

At the same time, the president encouraged the students to use the privilege of studying to actively participate in solving societal problems:

I certainly don't have to tell you anything about the major challenges of our time: climate change, energy transition, digitalisation, mobility. The problems involved cannot be solved solely by personal insight on the part of all of us, nor by politicians. Rather, technical innovations are urgently needed: new, sophisticated processes, clever inventions. And these must also come from you as future scientists and engineers!

Ilmenau's mayor Dr. Daniel Schultheiß and Jan-Henrik Nießen, head of the honorary office department of the student council, also encouraged the students to enter the new phase of their lives with an open mind and to get involved in the campus community and life in Ilmenau:

Take responsibility, help shape Ilmenau, set goals and start working on them. Here you have the best conditions for it

said student representative Nießen. The mayor, himself a graduate of the TU Ilmenau, also advised the students to understand their studies as a dynamic process and to consider not only large, but also small and medium-sized companies or self-employment in their career plans.

"Broaden your view beyond your own subject study!"

In her keynote speech on the topic "Digital, interdisciplinary, international? The changing face of academic education", junior professor Dr. Emese Domahidi, head of the Computational Communication Science Group at TU Ilmenau, reflected on the changing face of university teaching and encouraged students to take advantage of the opportunities created by this change:

Use the digital options as learners, also create your own content, discuss with us, bring relevant problems and your own perspective into the discussion! Broaden your view beyond your own subject studies: attend events in other disciplines, get to know students from other disciplines with whom you can discuss problems from different perspectives. Experience an international atmosphere in Ilmenau and make friends from all over the world. Leave Ilmenau for a stay abroad and come back to us with what you have learned!

Here at TU Ilmenau, students have fantastic opportunities to do so, says junior professor Domahidi:

I am convinced that you, like me, can find your academic home here. I wish you a good start and lots of fun in your studies!

Contact

Sabine Jackisch

Head of Referat Marketing

Ceremonial matriculation on 9 October 2021 at the TU Ilmenau