The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is driving forward the reform of higher education, teaching and further education. Oldenburg experts Anke Hanft and Annika Maschwitz are providing scientific support for the multi-billion euro project. An interview.
QUESTION: The German higher education landscape seems to be in a bit of a mess when the Federal Ministry of Education and Research is spending more than two billion euros on a reform...
HANFT: There is indeed room for improvement. The two programmes, in which a total of almost 200 universities are involved, pursue two different objectives. The federal-state competition "Advancement through Education: Open Universities" aims, among other things, to make it easier for working people who have not yet been able to combine studying with their everyday working lives to enter higher education. In future, universities are to develop more flexible teaching concepts that can be better integrated into their everyday lives. The second programme, "Quality Pact for Teaching", aims to improve teaching in Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes. These were introduced in Germany in a very short space of time, which has meant that they have not always been implemented optimally at universities.
QUESTION: What are the problems?
HANFT: The Bologna Process, which led to the introduction of Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes in Germany, is intended to promote the mobility of students, graduates and employees within the European Higher Education Area. To make this possible, a flexible study system is required above all. A modularised study system, as envisaged by the reform, enables students to switch easily between universities in Germany and even other countries. In addition, modularisation allows students to design their studies individually. However, in many countries, including Germany, the opportunities offered by modularisation for reforming studies have not been properly exploited and old content and forms of courses have simply been packed into new structures.
MASCHWITZ: The system could be flexible, but it is not flexible across the board. At the moment, for example, recognising credits earned at another university is still difficult and often depends on the assessment of a professor or the examiner.
QUESTION: What went wrong with the modularisation of studies?
MASCHWITZ: Modularisation only exists on paper. Basically, what was already there before is now summarised in blocks. The problem is that a module should form a self-contained unit in which the competences acquired are assessed in an examination. The current situation is that conventional courses, such as lectures, seminars and tutorials, are hardly interlinked in terms of content and are only grouped together organisationally. Many examiners only test the knowledge from their course and do not take into account the other module content. Students then tend to prepare for this one exam and may neglect other module content. In order to change this, lecturers need to cooperate more closely. The "Quality Pact for Teaching" and the federal-state competition "Advancement through Education: Open Universities" can help to improve the implementation of modularisation in studies, teaching and further education.
HANFT: The funds from the "Quality Pact for Teaching" also offer the opportunity for further reforms. For example, universities have to cater for increasingly heterogeneous students. In an education system in which more than half of an age group starts a degree programme, the level of competence of first-year students varies greatly. Many universities are responding to this with reforms in the introductory phase.
QUESTION: How can accompanying research contribute to change?
HANFT: Primarily by passing on good solutions and successful reforms from universities to others. In the meantime, a network of universities has formed in "Advancement through Education", which passes on the knowledge gained from individual universities to others. In the "Quality Pact for Teaching", the University of Duisburg-Essen is considered a good example of how universities with a high proportion of students with a migration background can succeed in turning this apparent weakness into a strength. The university has introduced a diversity management system that supports students throughout their studies with various counselling and support services. Many other universities also invest in bridging courses to support students who have deficits in certain areas. The experiences of these universities are made visible through the accompanying research and it is possible to see what works. Not every university has to reinvent the wheel. Proven bridging courses could, for example, be made available online to other universities.
QUESTION: So the projects are also about achieving co-operation between universities so that good ideas can spread. What is your role in the accompanying research?
HANFT: We also see our task as creating transparency about the knowledge gained and making it accessible to universities. Contact with universities often results in a counselling process. An accompanied bottom-up process can be used to permanently establish what has been created as a model in individual universities. In order to prevent many good ideas from being lost at the end of the project period, we would like to support sustainable changes in line with the BMBF. Through our support, we want to help ensure that changes are implemented and a genuine reform process is set in motion.
QUESTION: At the University of Oldenburg, you have already shown what modular study structures can look like?
MASCHWITZ: That's right. The Centre for Lifelong Learning, C3L, is developing Master's degree programmes that are aimed at working people. One example is the degree programme "Business Administration for Competitive Athletes", which the national football player Jonas Hector also took. A few years ago, we discovered that, depending on the sport, up to 70 per cent of top athletes have a high school diploma. However, it is hardly possible to study alongside top-class sport. Our degree programme responds very flexibly to the requirements of athletes. This means that they can complete this degree programme alongside their sport. It happens time and again that athletes don't have time to submit course certificates within the normal module period during the preparation time for major competitions. Normally, students would then have to repeat the module. We have therefore designed the programme so flexibly that students only have to take the number of modules that they can manage in terms of time.
QUESTION: What else contributes to flexibility?
MASCHWITZ: We know, for example, that it's not possible to organise an attendance phase for competitive athletes on Saturdays because that's when tournaments take place. We take the students' requirements and their time capacities into account when designing the degree programmes.
HANFT: At the end of the day, we have to gear the design of the degree programme more towards the requirements of the students and not lump everyone together. This in no way means that the degree programme will become easier, but it will become more flexible to study.
MASCHWITZ: At C3L, for example, the learning management system C3LLO was developed, in which students can work their way through the content independently of the lecturer. There are attendance phases and project work that are supervised by mentors. Other content is taught via online phases.
HANFT: The consistent modularisation of our degree programmes for working professionals is not only an advantage for the students, but also for the lecturers. In the old system, the responsibility for studying and teaching lay entirely with the lecturers. Now their expertise is integrated into the overall system in such a way that students work much more independently and interactively, including with each other and online, and are supported in the process. This change from teaching to learning is a really big structural reform. However, it also means a cultural change that needs to be instilled in the minds of teaching staff. Meaningfully designed modules are created when teachers sit down together and discuss the content. As the development and implementation of modules is designed as a process based on the division of labour, teachers can also be relieved of some of the burden. Such an advantage is needed to convince colleagues of the benefits of structural reform.
MASCHWITZ: I also see an important interface here between the federal and state programmes "Advancement through Education: Open Universities" and "Quality Pact for Teaching". The modules that are developed in the degree programmes for working professionals can be good practices for the Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes. This is because they achieve exactly what is important for modularisation: the modules form a didactic unit.
Interview: Tim Schröder
