Update from the Chancellor: Our Return to Normalcy

Our Return to Normalcy

After the last one and a half years, everyone seeks normalcy – the condition of things being normal. What has always fascinated me was the definition of normal – conforming to a standard – and as you can guess, my next question was, who or what defines this standard?

Interestingly, it seems that for the first time, our planet is agreeing on one standard, thus defining what we all consider to be normal – our pre-pandemic life.

The Economist magazine has developed a normalcy index based on 8 indicators, split into three categories: transport and travel, recreation and entertainment, retailing and work.

With 76% of the world population covered by the normalcy index, it gives us a good understanding on what is really happening on planet earth and with currently a normalcy index of 76 from 100 in November 2021 it can be argued that we are on our way out of the pandemic considering that the normalcy index was at 35 from 100 in April 2020.

New European College’s return to normal started with the students coming back on campus in September.

Reinforcing the return to normality, was the visit of the President of Wittenborg University of Applied Science Peter Birdsall in the middle of October.

Together with a small group of faculty members, master, and MBA students, we used this opportunity for the first evening event in 18 months.

Since we have returned to campus studies, seeing students and faculty back on campus has become “pretty” normal, but the past week was special – we had the first Project Week on campus.

On top of that, a project week that was dedicated to Climate Change and gave all the participants the possibility of evaluating in the form of a 3-day simulation how difficult it is find a solution to reduce CO2 emissions and negotiate between the developed countries and developing countries.

With 11 nationalities participating, our student literally lived the reality of the different perspectives and attitudes towards battling climate change.

As one can see, we all are on a path that is returning us to normalcy.

Even if it might sometimes take a bit longer, I recommend us all to stay patient, safe and healthy – mankind has always emerged stronger from crisis.

Sending you my best regards,

Sascha Liebhardt