Dear Readers,

At the end of last year, the public witnessed an unusual dispute between two federal ministers. Foreign Minister Kinkel was irritated by his cabinet colleague Kanther, whose ministry had apparently done everything in its power to block the path to German universities for non-EU students by imposing ever more petty bureaucratic hurdles. Fortunately, the criticism bore fruit and the Ministry of the Interior had to bury some of its particularly rigid plans. Behind this was not only concern for Germany's tarnished image, but also a tangible economic calculation, the equation of which says: to the extent that interest abroad in a German university education declines, economic contacts will suffer because fewer and fewer foreign executives will come into contact with German and thus develop less interest in the country and its products.

Federal Research Minister Rüttgers also reckons this way. In view of the falling numbers of international students at German universities, he is making money available for a programme that will also give foreigners who do not speak German the opportunity to study here. And in the global language of English and with degrees from British and American universities: the 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 and is one of the seven selected from over 100 projects that have applied for funding worth millions. Physicists from the university, together with colleagues from the Ostfriesland University of Applied Sciences, developed the Physics Engineering degree programme, which will produce highly practice-oriented specialists in the fields of Laser Technology, Biomedical Technology and Sound & Vibration. The language of instruction is English.

The new degree programme, which will start in the winter semester 98/99, is not the first to be taught in English in Oldenburg. For the past ten years, engineers and scientists from the Third World have been trained in the field of renewable energies - with great success, as a recently published survey on the professional careers of graduates revealed. And there are further plans to continue along this path. Together with its partner university Groningen, Oldenburg wants to create a joint degree programme that produces chemists who also understand how to market their knowledge. The programme is called Product Technology and the language of instruction will also be English. The future has begun in Oldenburg.

Yours

Gerhard Harms