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State of the universities: “Speed ​​too slow, progress not sufficient”

2022-04-29T17:06:36.135Z


The Stifterverband and McKinsey observed German universities for ten years. Their assessment is sobering - and is covered by a provocative statement by the Science Council on the future of teaching.


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Fewer exams, often ungraded - that's what the Science Council demands from universities

Photo: Andreas Lander/ picture alliance/ dpa

Digital and reasonably attractive for guest students from abroad - but also socially unfair, with declining numbers in the Mint subjects and much too slow in the conversion for the education of the future: This is how experts from the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft and the management consultancy McKinsey assess the situation of the German universities.

For ten years, they had examined in annual reports how well universities and universities of applied sciences – the former universities of applied sciences – are adapting to current challenges.

The 70 indices that were examined year after year ranged from the provision of digital devices to the training of new teachers, from support for women and girls to the quality of academic further education offers.

The Higher Education Report

AreaWhat is the report about?open

The Higher Education Report has been published annually since 2013.

Experts from the member companies of the Stifterverband and from scientific organizations had formulated goals for the universities for the year 2020.

For ten years, it was evaluated how well universities and universities of applied sciences have approached these goals.

areaWhat is being examined?expand

In each year the report was published, data was collected on a total of 70 indicators in six fields of action: How well are the universities positioned in terms of equal opportunities education, international education, vocational and academic education, quaternary education, MINT education and the training of teachers?

AreaWho is behind this?open

The report was created and financed by the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft and the management consultancy McKinsey.

The results of the long-term observation show that the universities are changing, but sometimes they act very sluggishly.

"The improvements achieved in the last decade show that we are moving in the right direction," says the as yet unpublished report available to SPIEGEL.

However, it is clear "that the pace is too slow, the progress is not sufficient enough".

Heavy stand for mint fans

The

report highlights

positive developments :

  • Universities have become significantly more international since 2013.

    The number of first-year students with foreign university entrance rose to a record high of 111,000 nationwide in 2019, but then dropped again due to the corona pandemic.

    The report also praises the high number of English-language courses at German universities.

  • From 2010 to 2020, the number of graduates from further education courses more than doubled to around 12,000.

    That's a good trend - but it's not strong enough, according to the report.

    "Students of further education still have an exotic status at universities in Germany," regrets Volker Meyer-Guckel, General Secretary of the Stifterverband.

  • Solveigh Hieronimus, senior partner at McKinsey, notes that there have also been “many improvements” in the digital conversion of universities.

    At the same time, she urges greater efforts: The development should be "an incentive for further digitization, more cooperation and investments at the universities - and at a faster pace."

The list of

negative developments

is longer :

  • The authors of the report rate the declining number of students in MINT subjects - mathematics, computer science, natural and technical sciences - as "alarming".

  • Although positive, but from the authors' point of view, the proportion of students in distance learning and the proportion of part-time master's courses is still developing far too slowly.

  • The report also considers it problematic that not all federal states offer dual study programs that combine professional practice and academic studies.

    Around 30,000 first semester students took up dual studies in 2020 - only a fraction of the around 490,000 beginners in the 2020/21 academic year.

  • The assessment of teacher training is particularly critical.

    For example, the current proportion of Mint students in the teaching profession at 26 percent even fell three percentage points below the starting value of 2010, as did the proportion of women in computer science in the teaching profession.

    Men in primary school teaching are also rare: Their share is stagnating at just under 17 percent.

  • And there is still a lot of catching up to do when it comes to equal opportunities.

    "Social background still determines educational success," says the report.

    Measured in terms of their absolute number, children from non-academic households are still greatly underrepresented at universities: only 27 percent of them began studying in 2020, compared to 79 percent of academic children.

»The next decade must be a decade of massive educational policy development.

A country like Germany should not afford anything else«, the authors of the report therefore demand.

Science Council calls for »quality leap«

There is support for these demands - coincidentally - from the Science Council.

In its meeting on Friday, it adopted "recommendations for a future-oriented design of studies and teaching".

According to SPIEGEL information, the paper was supposed to be completed a few months ago, but it took some time to agree on wording that was capable of consensus and that the federal states also supported.

In fact, the version approved on Friday has it all.

As a central demand, the Science Council emphatically formulates the call for a "quality leap" in the universities.

"High-quality offers for a few and less good offers for many should be avoided from a social and economic point of view, as should the reduction in university places," the paper says.

Achieving that will require a shift in priorities from more quantity to more quality.

The demands of the Science Council may sound like an impertinence for some university lecturers: It is important "to trust students in particular to have a high degree of maturity and a sense of responsibility," says the recommendation.

Specifically, the Science Council wants:

  • reduce the number of courses and

    exams

    and thereby create more freedom for reflection, the development of an inquiring attitude and diverse courses of study.

  • Breaking the dominance of exams: The variety of exam forms is to be increased, and the Science Council also wants a balance between

    graded and ungraded exams

    .

    The exams should also be better adapted to the needs of the students.

    Appropriate qualifications on the part of the teachers are required for this.

  • Grant students “

    higher degrees of freedom and scope for action

    ”.

    Orientation and support offers are necessary for their sensible use.

    There should therefore be decision-making options in the form of elective areas and priorities in all study phases.

  • Make regular study discussions

    between teachers and students the standard.

    These discussions could take place individually or in small groups and are intended to establish “a new form of academic mentorship”.

    Overall, the Science Council is in favor of better supervision - and a better supervision ratio.

  • Recalculate the

    teaching commitment for professors

    .

    In the future, the time and effort required for the preparation and follow-up of courses, the commitment of the lecturers in supervising students and a particularly good quality of seminars and lectures should be taken into account.

The reform proposals generally meet with approval from students.

"If the recommendations of the Science Council are implemented, students will finally experience a real unity of research and teaching," said Lone Grotheer from the free association of student bodies" to SPIEGEL.

In particular, the planned mentorship could improve individual educational opportunities, “because this format would make it easier for students without an academic background to move about their studies and the academic community”.

One thing is clear: the reforms proposed by the Science Council cost money.

It is clear that not all universities and all federal states are in such a good financial position to be able to implement these new framework conditions for study and teaching immediately, according to the recommendations.

Nevertheless, there is no longer any serious doubt that such reforms are necessary.

Source: spiegel

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