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The changing times of German higher education
German higher education represents the largest system of its kind in all of Europe. With graduate programs offering Masters and PhD degrees to local and international students alike, German universities have undergone a significant number of changes in recent years, making the quality of educational provision even greater than before.
Like many systems of higher education in Europe, Germany has seen a significant number of changes over the last few years in its universities and universities of applied sciences. Times certainly are changing in the German higher education, with last year’s introduction of tuition fees for domestic and international students and the ongoing reform of undergraduate and graduate levels of education in line with the pan-European Bologna initiative.
Despite decades of under-investment in higher education, German universities are in a more competitive international position than they have been for a number of years. The number of international students currently enrolled in German institutions is well in excess of 190,000, having grown exponentially over the last ten years. With large populations of Chinese, Bulgarian, Polish, Moroccan and Russian students, Germany is the second most popular destination for international students in Europe, behind only the UK.
The Bologna Reform too has now taken root in the minds of German Government and university presidents alike. The European Commission’s initiative to reform previously disparate systems of higher education throughout Europe, banishing the Staatsexamen to the annals of history, has been replaced by a more open and commonly structured Bachelors and Masters higher education system. All new students entering German universities this week will be enrolling onto a system of education entirely different from that which Wilhelm von Humboldt envisioned in the early nineteenth century.
Dr Ulrich Marsch, Head of Corporate Communication at TU Munich, sees the new framework for the structure of German degrees as a great benefit to most German universities, interested as they are in recruiting the most talented students from Germany, Europe and farther afield: “We have welcomed the new Bachelor structure as it allows more mobility for the best students seeking to move from one university to another. We will continue to encourage applications from those students who have attained the new qualification and wish to study a Masters degree at TUM.”
In answer to those who view the new system of Bachelors and Masters education as not being fit for purpose for German employers, Dr Marsch echoes the views of many behind the reforms: “We have developed our new academic programs with the help of employers and with their needs in mind. The decline of the old style economy and the increasing need to compete internationally means that our academic programs have to reflect the need to produce more competitive graduates in innovative areas of specialization.”
Tuition fees for university study too have made an impact on German universities, bringing Europe’s largest system of higher education in line with others in the European Union. With varying student reaction over the decision, the implementation of tuition fees in 2006 has been both controversial and open to debate. Unsure of what universities would do with their newfound source of income, students viewed their introduction with great suspicion and protests across a number of campuses took place throughout 2006 and early this year. Yet the extent to which students have continued to contest the issue is somewhat unclear. Universities in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony took part in a Centre for Higher Education Development (CHE) study in 2007 that demonstrated their use of tuition fee income for the improvement of study conditions reduced the level of student protest significantly.
Dr Andreas Barz, Head of the Department for Curricular Affairs and Teaching at the University of Heidelberg views the upheaval endured by a number of universities in Germany over the introduction of tuition fees with some circumspection: “Here at Heidelberg we have enjoyed a very peaceful transformation to tuition fees, very different from the experience of many of my colleagues. We have developed a system where student representatives are assigned to key committees responsible for the distribution and use of their money derived from tuition fees.”
