Whenever I hear a politician harp on about how much he favors education, I just roll my eyes, because every politician that's ever lived has harped on education, and very few have done anything to improve it.
- Statler N Waldorf, on fivethirtyeight.com
You're looking forward to finishing you degree in Mechanical Engineering? Then there's a strong probability that you're not German.
As German magazine Technology Review (German link) reports (German link), the Association of German Mechanical and Plant Engineers (Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau, VDMA) are not only suffering from an almost-25-per-cent fall in production output during last year, but are also now warning that, by the year 2014, they will suffer a skills shortage to the tune of about 220,000 personnel.
Why is that? Its because of Europe. More specifically, the Bologna-Process that tried to make academic degree standards and quality assurance standards more comparable and compatible throughout Europe. Therefore, German universities and universities of applied sciences (the famed Fachhochschulen) no longer hand out Diplome, but Bachelor's and Master's degrees. They restructured their programmes accordingly, resulting in heavily rigid, inflexible and school-like courses (this humble poster has earned a Bachelor's and Master's degree from a German university himself, albeit in Humanities, not Science).
The result isn't exactly what the politicians who envisioned this change had hoped for: Rather than shortening study times and increasing the "output" of universities and Fachhochschulen, the increased the number of drop-outs dramatically. The MINT-subjects (German link) - Maths, Informatik (Computer Sciences), Naturwissenschaften (Sciences), Technik (Technology-oriented courses) - suffer especially heavily: Only one half of all students of Mechanical Engineering actually finish their degree in German Institutes of Technology (Technische Universitäten), and while they fare a bit better on the Fachhochschulen, >30% drop-out rates aren't much better. Maths, Computer Sciences, Chemistry, Physics, and others don't hold up much better.
One problem is the high pressure - lots and lots of tests and exams lead let many fail permanently (there's a three-strikes-rule for every exam you take, another one is different expectations and inadequate preparation (e.g. in Maths) by the schools. This might be exacerbated by the prevalent German university practise of doing without entrance exams, and allowing access only based on overall school performance. Another problem is that the heavily stuffed and inflexible course times don't really allow for a student job to provide you with some reliable income - oh, and the tuition fees passed during the last few years aren't exactly helpful, either. Possible solutions include the lengthening of the Bachelor's courses to untangle it a bit, and provinding more mentor-programmes.
The good news here is that more students then ever before enrolled in universities in 2009, but - bummer - that's partly because of stronger age-groups leaving the schools, and some federal states having shortened their school education from 13 to 12 years, producing a single double-"output"-year. So we'll see where that whole Bologne-thing leads us.
History only repeats itself if one doesn't listen the first time.
Thanks for this mus.
I think you need to be a bit clearer about the Bologna declaration.
First,when you say 'Europe', you should emphasise that it is a Europe-wide initiative and not to do withe the EU/EEA.
More importantly, it is a voluntary agreement that is not legally binding in the same way as a treaty. Therefore, the German reforms that have been implemented are entirely the decision of the German government. Other countries have not been so drastic in their reforms.
Clearly the German reforms have been unpopular with students. Whether it eventually results in an education system that better serves modern education needs remains to be seen.
You're certainly right about that, Blue Genes, but consider a) that signing any treaty is also "entirely the decision of the German government", and b) that the German reforms were spectacularly fucked up for a number of reasons I might delve into deeper at another time (having to do with education falling into the domain of the individual states, and people being stupid - the worst thing for a reform is if the stated goals aren't reached, while inheriting the flaws of the old system, which is kinda what happened.
History only repeats itself if one doesn't listen the first time.