Dear readers,

At the end of last year, the public witnessed an unusual row between two federal ministers. Foreign Minister Kinkel was exasperated by his cabinet colleague Kanther, whose ministry had evidently done everything in its power to block non-EU students from gaining access to German universities by imposing increasingly petty bureaucratic hurdles. Fortunately, the criticism bore fruit, and the Ministry of the Interior was forced to scrap some of its particularly rigid plans. Behind this lay not only concern for Germany’s tarnished image, but also a hard-nosed economic calculation, the equation of which states: As interest abroad in a German university education declines, economic ties will suffer, because fewer and fewer foreign executives will come into contact with Germany and will therefore develop less interest in the country and its products.

Federal Research Minister Rüttgers shares this view. In light of the falling numbers of international students at German universities, he is providing funding for a programme designed to give even those foreigners who do not speak German the opportunity to study here. The programme will be taught in English, the global language, and will lead to degrees from British and American universities: Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. He hopes that such a policy will attract more students to Germany.

The University of Oldenburg is also participating in this programme; out of over 100 projects submitted, it is one of the seven selected to receive funding running into the millions. Physicists at the university, together with colleagues from the East Frisia University of Applied Sciences, have developed the Physics Engineering degree programme, which is strongly practice-oriented and will produce specialists in the fields of laser technology, biomedical technology and sound & vibration. The language of instruction is English. .

However, the new degree programme, which is due to start in the winter semester of 98/99, is not the first degree programme taught in English in Oldenburg. For ten years now, engineers and scientists, primarily from the developing world, have been trained in the field of renewable energy – with great success, as a recently published survey on the career paths of graduates has shown. And there are further plans to continue along this path. Together with its partner university in Groningen, Oldenburg intends to create a joint degree programme that will produce chemists who also understand how to commercialise their knowledge. It is called Product Technology, and the language of instruction for this programme will also be English. The future has begun in Oldenburg.

Yours,

Gerhard Harms