Young people had to study completely online for three semesters.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The corona pandemic has significantly slowed the internationalization of studies: in 2020 only 64,000 people from abroad started studying in Germany. That is 20 percent less than in the previous year, reports the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD. This is also bad news for the economy, because foreign students who already speak German and know the country are later considered ideal specialists for companies.
Digitization has become even more important for universities. Almost a quarter of foreign students started their studies online from abroad – in 2019 it was only 14 percent.
In China the proportion rose to 18, in India even to 35 percent. The two largest groups of foreign students come from these nations. This is followed by Syria, Austria and Russia.
“The high demand must be an incentive for us not to let up in terms of digitization at universities,” warned DAAD President Joybrato Mukherjee when presenting the figures. At the same time he called for the support of the next government: “We assume that this will also be reflected in the program of the future federal government.”
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The non-profit Stifterverband, a network of companies and foundations, is also pressing for the universities not to fall behind. In the pandemic, three quarters of the universities offered their enrolled students from abroad distance learning with online formats. In addition, there were welcome events or visa advice, shows an analysis by the Stifterverband and the management consultancy McKinsey.
Digitization must continue – despite face-to-face studies
“The forced digitization push has a lasting positive effect,” said Volker Meyer-Guckel, Vice Secretary General of the Stifterverband der Wirtschaft. Now that the pandemic is being pushed back and the students are returning to face-to-face studies, “everything must be done to deepen the digital expansion and to expand and support the mobility of the students again,” said Meyer-Guckel.
The numbers of Erasmus students showed that there is still a lot of room for improvement. 55 percent of Erasmus stays were regular during the pandemic, but 41 percent were shortened, postponed or canceled.
In Germany, only 1.5 percent of Erasmus students would have had a digital semester abroad credited in the 2020 summer semester – even though more than half of European universities offer their students this option, according to a study by Stifterverband and McKinsey.
Both recommend the universities to stimulate internationalization after the pandemic with additional places for catch-up people. In addition, the digitalisation push should be expanded further, for example through digital lecture series or platforms for online teaching.
Ed-Techs are becoming more attractive for further training
Stifterverband and McKinsey also see a lot of catching up to do in Germany for digital “Ed-Techs” – that is, innovative providers of learning programs. Some of these commercial offers grew by over 50 percent during the pandemic. According to the study, the content would “in future be even closer to that of universities in Germany”.
Their offers are becoming more and more attractive and could offer an alternative to the semester abroad or at least complement the course. For example, the US company “Coursera” now offers more than 30 full degrees from well-known international universities. However, this is still the exception. However, some universities would already credit certificates from Ed-Techs as part of a course of study.
The study authors praise digital “adaptive learning programs” as particularly interesting, which show teachers and students where there are still gaps. Such programs are also considered to be potentially enormously helpful for schools, but have hardly been used so far.
In Europe as a whole, the funding of start-ups in the Ed-Tech sector has increased significantly since 2019, but Germany is lagging behind. The rest of Europe has an annual growth of around 70 percent since 2019 and a volume of around 1.4 billion US dollars in the first half of 2021 alone. In Germany, on the other hand, the growth rate is only 20 percent and a volume of 107 million US dollars -Dollar.
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