Bachelor Implementation and Its Short-Term Effects

By introducing the Bachelor degree at German universities, political decision makers in Germany hoped, among other things, to overcome the skilled worker shortage. They expected that obtaining a university degree in a shorter period of time, would attract more students to go to university. The Centre of European Economic Research (ZEW) Mannheim analysed the years 1998 to 2006 and the first findings are sobering. The implementation of the Bachelor degree has neither significantly increased the number of students nor decreased the drop-out rates.

For subjects like electrical, mechanical and industrial engineering as well as physics, there are even negative effects. The number of new students enrolling in these subjects already offering the Bachelor degree was significantly lower. This could be due to the fact that the traditional German degrees in these subjects have a great reputation in Germany and abroad.

Within the Bologna Process starting in the late 1990s, many traditional national university degrees in Germany and other member states of the European Union were replaced by internationally comparable Bachelor and Master Degrees. The idea was to create a homogeneous tertiary education system in Europe. Particularly in Germany, the political decision makers hoped to reduce the overall duration of study and the costs as well as to increase the number of students and thus the number of university graduates. This could help to reduce the skilled worker shortage already visible in Germany.

However, first findings covering the years 1998 to 2006 in the Bologna Process indicate that there is no such positive development. The new degrees do not necessarily give more incentives to go to university.

The ZEW study is based on student statistical data by the German Federal Statistical Office, which includes all students in Germany. To empirically analyse this data, it was aggregated at departmental level and analysed for every subject individually, in order to find out if subjects already offering the Bachelor degree are more attractive to students. Subjects affected by the skilled worker shortage like the MINT subjects, namely mathematics, information technology, natural sciences and technology subjects, as well as economic subjects and subjects in the humanities were analysed. Other subjects like medicine, law and teaching degrees were not considered because they still only offer the traditional German university degree.

Due to the fact that the Bologna Process has not yet been completed, students starting university between 1998 and 2006 were able to choose between the traditional university degree and the Bachelor degree. Thus, the study’s results are only interim findings and the reform’s long-term effects will first become apparent when all universities in Germany offer Bachelor degrees.

For further information please contact

Julia Horstschräer, Phone: + 49 (0)621/1235-196, Fax: -225, E-mail: horstschraeer@zew.de

Dr. Maresa Sprietsma, Phone: + 49 (0)621/1235-375, Fax: -225, E-mail: sprietsma@zew.de