Abstract
The university system in Germany is currently undergoing profound changes. In order to strengthen their competitive position, private universities of applied sciences are increasingly offering integrated study programs which combine profound academic education with practical on-the-job training in a company. Private businesses highly appreciate these dual-systems of studies as they meet their demand for well-qualified, experienced junior staff. Some companies strive to build up close relationships with academic institutions in order to influence and shape the design of study programs at least to a certain degree. In the course of this development, opportunities are discussed to move the places where students are doing their studies away from the university campus to the students' workplace in the company. Study programs following this idea can only be implemented by making use of a broad range of e-learning tools being available. E-learning makes it possible to transfer academic education into a virtual context, e.g. by providing access to virtual seminars via Live-E-learning at the workplace. E-learning lectures are integrated into the normal working day of the student - reducing the time a student is absent from the workplace. The regular and systematic change between periods of academic education at the university and periods of practical work in the company - which has been typical for study programs following the dual-system - is giving way to a completely new form of business-integrating university studies. This article is going to discuss different issues of this development. As an example, a study program which has been designed in close cooperation between a large German corporation in the telecommunication industry and a German university of applied sciences will be described. Based on this example, advantages and disadvantages for all parties involved will be analyzed.
Highlights
Economic challenges in an increasingly globalized world, demographic developments, and major changes in the working environment have led to a growing and changing demand for qualified employees in Germany [1]
Following a recommendation of the science council in Germany, these study programs can be seen as a co-operation between a student, a company, and a university or university of cooperative education aiming at collectively providing an academic education [12,13]
All documents that are necessary for the lecture can be provided either in the virtual seminar room or on an additional web-based platform. This platform reproduces the structure of the study program for different classes and semesters
Summary
Economic challenges in an increasingly globalized world, demographic developments, and major changes in the working environment have led to a growing and changing demand for qualified employees in Germany [1]. The idea of combining theory and practice has shaped the German vocational training system This idea has been transferred to an academic environment [6]. Most of these dual-system study programs are offered by public and private universities of applied sciences in Germany [7]. Dual-system study programs currently account for 6 % of all university degree programs (3.3 % of all students) [9,10]. That means they still represent a niche market. Cooperation between Business and Academia in Germany - A Critical Analysis of New Trends in Designing Integrated Study Programs Based on E-learning to their role at the interface between academia and business and due to a growing number of requests from students and companies, these kinds of study programs have gained considerable importance within science politics in Germany [11]
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