Abstract
Low success rates are a thorn in the side of any Higher Education Institute (HEI). With increasing aspirations of attracting international students to Germany (HRK 2020), the international students’ success rates are worthy of a review. For it reflects on how internationalisation processes, such as the Bologna Process, impact on success rates and whether the changing structures attract international students. We used the German administrative data, covering twenty years, to create this cross-cohort analysis of student success rates. By creating a common finishing point-in-time, the combined success rates of diplom and bachelor students in mechanical engineering show that the synchronised success rates for the increasing number of international students are not just comparable, but better than those of the German students.
Highlights
Reforming the higher education system in accordance with international processes such as the Bologna Process (BP) in 48 countries (EHEA, 2020) is no easy task
The acatech Study on success rates focused on a group including universities and technical universities, their sample of Higher Education Institute (HEI) amounted to a group that accounts for almost 75% of STEM students and their analysis which showed the variability of discontinued courses initially used internal data (Klöpping, et al, 2017)
The examination data contains the final grade, year and month of the exam, as is the programme examined included. Both student and exam datasets inclusion of place of matriculation and students’ citizenship mean that we could create a dummy variable with four categories identifying if the student is German with a German right to matriculate (GG); non-German with a German right to matriculation (FG); German with a non-German right to matriculation (GF) or the fourth group which is foreign with a foreign right to matriculation (FF)
Summary
Reforming the higher education system in accordance with international processes such as the Bologna Process (BP) in 48 countries (EHEA, 2020) is no easy task. We can argue that the BP as a form of internationalisation of higher education within the global market (Wit, 2011) has been a success, where internationalisation includes the structural transformation, for example, Germany replacing its diplom with the bachelor degree programmes This transformation incorporated a mechanism to reduce study time. The migratory movement of the international students tells us about the socio-economy and the push and pull factors of sending and receiving countries (Grözinger 2011) Their success rates demand that we consider the theoretical understandings of path dependency (Perkins & Neumayer, 2014).
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
