German Universities Research Articles

Effect of incentive means based on enterprise management innovation reform on relieving the anxiety of employees

BackgroundIn the current enterprise management environment, employee anxiety has become a familiar and serious problem, affecting the work efficiency of employees and the overall operation effect of enterprises. The incentive means of enterprise management innovation reform may help alleviate employees’ anxiety.Subjects and MethodsThis study adopted a randomized controlled trial to select two representative enterprises, in which one enterprise (intervention group) implemented the incentive means of innovation reform, and the other enterprise (control group) maintained the original management style. Incentives for innovation and reform mainly include providing more career development opportunities, improving the working environment, and enhancing employee welfare. The self-rating anxiety Scale and job satisfaction questionnaire were used to evaluate the two groups of employees at regular intervals. The analysis software is SPSS23.0.ResultsThe six-month experiment found that employees in the control group experienced a significantly higher reduction in SAS scores than those in the control group and improved considerably job satisfaction. The average SAS score decreased by 30% in the intervention group, while the average SAS score decreased by only 5% in the control group. The intervention group reported a 20 percent increase in job satisfaction.ConclusionsThe innovation reform and incentive means of enterprise management can effectively alleviate the anxiety symptoms of employees and improve their job satisfaction. This provides enterprises a practical way to improve employees’ psychological state and work efficiency.AcknowledgementIn 2021, the horizontal scientific research project of Tianjin Sino German University of Applied Sciences (No. H2021-063).

Postdoctoral researchers' perspectives on working conditions and equal opportunities in German academia.

Postdoctoral researchers (postdocs) are an essential component of the scientific workforce in German universities and research institutions and play a vital role in advancing knowledge and innovation. However, the experiences of postdocs and other early career researchers (ECRs) indicate that working conditions pose a significant challenge to the pursuit of a long-term research career in Germany-particularly for international scientists and those from marginalized groups. We examine how unstable working conditions as well as insufficient structural support for equal opportunities and diversity are significant obstacles for the career development of ECRs in German academia. We discuss these issues with the aid of an extensive survey recently conducted and published by PostdocNet, a target-group network representing the interests of postdocs across Germany's Max Planck Society. The survey drew responses from 659 postdoctoral researchers working at the Max Planck Society and represents one of the few datasets of postdoctoral researchers' perspectives in Germany. Building on these findings, we suggest actions at governmental, institutional, and individual levels to improve the working conditions of postdoctoral researchers in Germany.

Edmund Hardy and the Science of Religion

Edmund Hardy (1852–1904) was a Catholic priest, Indologist, and religious scholar who lived and worked during the period of the Kulturkampf struggle between the German Chancellor Bismarck and the Catholic church as well as early German colonialism. The lecture he gave under the title “Einleitung in die vergleichende Religionswissenschaft” (“Introduction to Comparative Religion”) at the German University of Freiburg in 1890 and his appointment as professor for “Vergleichende Religionswissenschaft und altindische Literatur” (“Comparative Religion and Ancient Indian Literature”") in 1894 at the Swiss University of Fribourg were key steps in establishing the discipline of Religionswissenschaft (Science of Religion) in the German-speaking world. The essay he wrote in 1898 entitles “Was ist Religionswissenschaft?” (“What is the Science of Religion?”) was perhaps his key statement of the nature of this discipline, which he defines as a strictly empirical Geisteswissenschaft and Kulturwissenschaft (Arts and Humanities). This essay was the first article to appear in the new journal Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, edited by the secondary school teacher Thomas Achelis (1850–1909). Hardy’s approach was methodologically based on historicism and on the early understanding of psychology according to Wilhelm Dilthey and Wilhelm Wundt. However, as similarly befell Joachim Wach’s empirical approach, Hardy’s methodological work was barely noticed during the long reign of the phenomenology of religion. This observation raises fundamental questions of how the history of our discipline has been constructed and, in particular, of what are considered “classics” in the study of religion.

Entrepreneurship Education: Methods and tools to increase successful academic venture creation

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) face a high degree of complexity when designing entrepreneurial education programmes at the level of University Business Incubators (UBIs) and beyond. Our paper addresses these concerns by answering the question: "What are the entrepreneurial and pedagogical methods, templates and tools that a new academic venture needs to be exposed to in order to not only raise awareness but also increase the level of successful start-up creation?". To this end, we seek to build a framework that delineates different entrepreneurial education (EE) approaches along the lifecycle of new venture creation at universities. Moreover, we reflect our theory-based framework with a case study of different EE education provided to different target groups (students, academic venture teams) at a German university, i.e. the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and its excellence start-up centre "Worldfactory". This study will provide new insights into EE and higher education, and the dynamics of new ventures and their entrepreneurs in the awareness EE stage.

Logik und Geschlecht? Empirische Daten zu Logikeinführungen im Philosophiestudium an deutschen Universitäten1

Although the underrepresentation of women in academic philosophy is well-known and hard to overlook, philosophers started to pay more attention to the actual data on and potential explanations of the underrepresentation of women in philosophy only in the last decade and predominately in anglophone countries. The data I present in this paper deal with introductory logic courses at German universities (gender of textbook authors, gender of logic course instructors, student grades by gender at one university). Two results are particularly noteworthy: For one, logic teaching in Germany is currently predominantly male and even more male than philosophy teaching as a whole. For another, there is no evidence for any differences between grades of female and male students. The student grade data, however, illustrate how statistical phenomena like Simpson's paradox can explain how male students can appear to achieve better grades than female students even if there is no underlying difference: When correcting for students’ major (philosophy vs. STEM), logic grades of male and female students are remarkably similar. Although the scope of the data presented here is limited, they allow to add further details to an emerging map of the profession. I close with some suggestions for avoiding stereotyping logic as “male”.

Comparative Study of Higher Education System Between India and Germany in the Present Era

The study paper provides a comparison between the higher education system of India and higher education system of Germany in respect of aims and objectives, structure, curriculum, opportunities and current issues or their common focus areas in the present era. The paper also gives a glimpse of history of higher education in ancient India-the era when India used to provide world class higher education and also history of higher education of Germany. The data are collected from primary and secondary sources. The methodology adopted for the study is documentary analysis. The results reveal that both India and Germany have same type of educational structure comprising of bachelor degree, master degree, doctoral and post-doctoral programs and emphasize on professional expertise but India focuses primarily on theoretical knowledge and democratic values inculcation, science and spiritual education and Germany focuses chiefly on practical implementation of theoretical knowledge, skill development, research and innovations, capacity building in higher education, forming intellectual property, entrepreneurial development, creating diversity of people and ideas, promoting global citizenship and societal sustainability. The USP of German higher education is that quality higher education is provided at a very low cost or no tuition fees charged at the world class German universities, offers diversified course, dual study programs and a lot of flexibility like switching major and education policies are formulated frequently considering the present need and demand. Recently both countries’ focus areas are digitalization of higher education, teacher improvement program for higher education, internationalization, foreign students and faculty exchange programs, increase in spending on education and decentralization of higher education. The paper concludes with India being a largest democracy and one of the developing nations, Indian higher education system can consider German higher education system as a benchmark and can imbibe the positive qualities for improvement and enrichment.

Towards a Bavarian Oncology Real World Data Research Platform.

In the last decade numerous real-world data networks have been established in order to leverage the value of data from electronic health records for medical research. In Germany, a nation-wide network based on electronic health record data from all German university hospitals has been established within the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII) and recently opened for researcherst' access through the German Portal for Medical Research Data (FDPG). In Bavaria, the six university hospitals have joined forces within the Bavarian Cancer Research Center (BZKF). The oncology departments aim at establishing a federated observational research network based on the framework of the MII/FDPG and extending it with a clear focus on oncological clinical data, imaging data and molecular high throughput analysis data. We describe necessary adaptions and extensions of existing MII components with the goal of establishing a Bavarian oncology real world data research platform with its first use case of performing federated feasibility queries on clinical oncology data. We share insights from developing a feasibility platform prototype and presenting it to end users. Our main discovery was that oncological data is characterized by a higher degree of interdependence and complexity compared to the MII core dataset that is already integrated into the FDPG. The significance of our work lies in the requirements we formulated for extending already existing MII components to match oncology specific data and to meet oncology researchers needs while simultaneously transferring back our results and experiences into further developments within the MII.

Achievement Goals, Student Engagement, and the Mediatory Role of Autonomy Support in Lecture-Based Courses

What makes first-semester students stay engaged in non-mandatory lecture-based courses? This study aims to answer this question by analyzing the relationship between student engagement with autonomy support and achievement goals. Data gathered through self-reports from 340 students attending four introductory lecture-based courses at four German universities were used to test the following hypotheses: (1) students who pursue goals for self-improvement display emotional, behavioral, and cognitive engagement, (2) emotional engagement is predicted by students’ perceptions of autonomy support, and (3) students who aim to outperform their peers display higher emotional engagement compared to cognitive engagement. After confirming the hypotheses with multiple regression analyses, additional results indicated a statistically significant relationship between both emotional engagement and achievement goals with autonomy. Further, results indicate a moderate positive association between emotional engagement and both behavioral and cognitive engagements. These findings confirm the presence of both mastery and performance goals in courses with a lecture-based teaching. This study highlights some limitations for statistical analyses with agentic engagement as well as the need to analyze study participants’ school culture for further research on student engagement.

Decisions, practices, and experiences of disclosure by academics with invisible disabilities at German universities

Disclosing an invisible disability such as mental illness or rheumatic disease can be a significant challenge for disabled people, personally and professionally. Whereas some individuals choose to be more or less open about their disabilities with friends and colleagues, others decide to keep their conditions to themselves due to their fear of stigma and exclusion. In recent years, disability disclosure at universities has received more attention in higher education research and disability studies. Whereas current research focuses on students with invisible disabilities, the disclosure experiences of disabled academics have hardly been explored. Therefore, this study offers problem-centred interviews with academics with invisible disabilities at German universities. The study results provide insight into how these scholars decide whether and when to disclose their disabilities and how these processes have affected their academic careers.

Acceptance of artificial intelligence among pre-service teachers: a multigroup analysis

Over the past few years, there has been a significant increase in the utilization of artificial intelligence (AI)-based educational applications in education. As pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards educational technology that utilizes AI have a potential impact on the learning outcomes of their future students, it is essential to know more about pre-service teachers’ acceptance of AI. The aims of this study are (1) to discover what factors determine pre-service teachers’ intentions to utilize AI-based educational applications and (2) to determine whether gender differences exist within determinants that affect those behavioral intentions. A sample of 452 pre-service teachers (325 female) participated in a survey at one German university. Based on a prominent technology acceptance model, structural equation modeling, measurement invariance, and multigroup analysis were carried out. The results demonstrated that eight out of nine hypotheses were supported; perceived ease of use (β = 0.297***) and perceived usefulness (β = 0.501***) were identified as primary factors predicting pre-service teachers’ intention to use AI. Furthermore, the latent mean differences results indicated that two constructs, AI anxiety (z = − 3.217**) and perceived enjoyment (z = 2.556*), were significantly different by gender. In addition, it is noteworthy that the paths from AI anxiety to perceived ease of use (p = 0.018*) and from perceived ease of use to perceived usefulness (p = 0.002**) are moderated by gender. This study confirms the determinants influencing the behavioral intention based on the Technology Acceptance Model 3 of German pre-service teachers to use AI-based applications in education. Furthermore, the results demonstrate how essential it is to address gender-specific aspects in teacher education because there is a high percentage of female pre-service teachers, in general. This study contributes to state of the art in AI-powered education and teacher education.

Use of virtual reality in port implantation to reduce perioperative anxiety and pain: protocol for a randomised controlled pilot trial at a single German university hospital (VIP-trial; DRKS00028508)

IntroductionIntravenous access port implantation is commonly performed under local anaesthesia, which offers advantages such as increased patient satisfaction and resource savings compared with general anaesthesia. However, patients may experience increased...

Collections from Colonial Australia in Berlin's Museum für Naturkunde and the Challenges of Data Accessibility

German-speaking naturalists working in southeastern Australia in the mid-19th century relied heavily on the expertise of First Nations intermediaries who acted as guides, collectors, traders and translators (Clarke 2008, Olsen and Russell 2019). Many of these naturalists went to Australia because of the research opportunities offered by the British Empire at a time when the German nation states did not have colonies of their own. Others sought to escape political upheaval at home. They were welcome employees for colonial government agencies due to their training in the emerging research-oriented natural sciences that the reformed German universities offered at a time when British universities were still providing a broad general education (Home 1995, Kirchberger 2000). Wilhelm von Blandowski (1822–1878 ) and Gerard Krefft (1830–1881 ), who both worked in colonial Victoria and New South Wales, are among this group. Throughout their work, they corresponded extensively with naturalists in Berlin, exchanging specimens and ideas. But the preserved Australian animals, plants and rock samples, as well as the written and drawn records of animals and landscapes now held at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MfN), are much more than objects of scientific interest. They also contain information about Australia's First Nations. The collections provide evidence of their role in collecting as well as their knowledge of the natural world, which has long been overlooked and, at least in part deliberately, made invisible by Western knowledge systems (e.g., Das and Lowe 2018, Ashby 2020). People data have been recognised as crucial for linking such collection objects with expeditions, publications, archival material and correspondence (Groom et al. 2020, Groom et al. 2022). It can thus potentially help reconstruct invisibilized Indigenous histories and knowledge. However, while the MfN keeps information about European collectors and other non-indigenous agents associated with their specimens in internal catalogues, databases and wikis, Indigenous actors remain largely absent from these repositories, which reproduce the colonial archive 'along the archival grain' (Stoler 2009). With this in mind, we discuss in our presentation the complexities of using persistent identifiers and tools, such as Wikidata, to improve the integration and linkage of people data in the work currently being undertaken by the MfN and the Berlin's Australian Archive project to digitise and make accessible the museum’s collections. Drawing upon the guidance provided by the FAIR*1 and CARE*2 principles for data (Wilkinson et al. 2016, Carroll et al. 2020), and learning from the 2012 ATSILIRN Protocols for Libraries, Archives and Information Services*3, the 2019 Tandanya Adelaide Declaration and the 2020 AIATSIS Code of Ethics*4, we address the potential of these efforts in terms of collection accessibility, and also highlight the challenges and limitations of this approach in the context of colonial collections.

Письма профессора И. В. Попова из научной командировки 1901–1902 гг. профессору С. И. Смирнову: к реконструкции академических связей

In this publication are presented the letters written by Prof. of Moscow Theological Academy I. V. Popov. The letters of Prof. I. V. Popov, written during the period of his internship in German universities (1901–1902), and addressed to his trusted friend, Prof. of Moscow Theological Academy S. I. Smirnov. These letters are interesting in two respects: on the one hand, because they provide Popov’s impressions of his trip abroad, which throw light on his subsequent academic career, particularly in the field of organization and reform of native theological education; on the other hand, because they reveal the nature of the relationship between the two professors, and clearly show Popov’s intellectual influence on his friend and colleague Smirnov during the preparation of his future dissertation “The Spiritual Father in in the Early Eastern Church” (1906). Popov helps to Smirnov to adjust his view of the chosen research problem, which, according to his original plan, should have concerned a more comprehensive treatment of the sources, and considerably broaden the subject of his research. The published letters are held in the manuscripts department of the Russian State Library in the collection of S. I. Smirnov.

Organization of continuing education at a university hospital

Continuing education at German university hospitals is individually organized within the framework of the continuing education regulations. In the personal organization (University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Luebeck) three sections (common trunk, medical specialist for visceral surgery and additional qualification in special visceral surgery) and two lines (clinical line and academic clinical line) are differentiated. The whole training is flanked by the mediation of technical competence even outside the operating room (Lübeck toolbox, RoSTraC curriculum, suture courses etc.). Future concepts for continuing education must take the healthcare structure in hospitals, the increasing specialization and the increasing technical complexity into account.

INTEGRATED DUAL LEARNING PROGRAMS AT GERMAN UNIVERSITIES

A dual education system stipulates for the combination of education and students’ manufacturing activities. Future employees study at universities where they acquire theoretical knowledge and work at enterprises where they acquire the necessary professional competencies. Germany is a recognized leader in dual education in Europe, where the vocational education system is characterized by a well-developed mentoring institution, practice-oriented training and active participation of business in specialists’ training. The experience of this country is a model for other countries of the European Union and world powers.
 Using the methods of generalization, systematization, analysis of primary documents and expert assessments, the paper presents the analysis and typologization of the integrated dual education programs at German universities. A study of the scientific researches of both, domestic and foreign scholars enables to reveal an insufficiently developed complex theory that would focus specifically on duality in higher education on the one hand and on how to design the integration of academic and professional learning on the other.
 The analysis of scientific papers helped identify the two types of curricula with a high and low degree of integration. The analysis allowed to determine the two types of curricula with a high and low degree of integration. It has been found that different types of curricula, taking into account the duality, can be brought to a full integration. It had also been determined that systems integration can be achieved through educational activities at different levels. This can be either by developing programs designed exclusively for students studying in dual mode or by creating hybrid program structures that support the learning experience with additional elements specifically designed for dual mode.

Saving energy at university campus via intervention to reduce elevator usage – a case study from Germany

Recently, the need for energy saving has become a challenge for German society. Rising prices of energy, and urgent need to mitigate and adapt to climate change, made it necessary to reflect and change behaviors on a population level. Simultaneously, the population faces increased sedentary lifestyle and health system promotes benefits of daily movement and sports. By using stairs, instead of taking the elevator, could be part of the solution for both problems. This applies for buildings, such as universities, which usually have hundreds of students and staff circulating daily. In this sense, this study aims to analyse how an intervention to increase stair usage, by involving motivational stickers and posters, could impact the behavior of students and staff. To achieve its goal, a field study and a questionnaire has been conducted at one German University. The results showed, after the intervention, that the elevator usage decreased by nearly 7%. According to the questionnaire nearly a fifth of all participants felt motivated by the stickers to choose the stairs over the elevator. While before the intervention male participants were 1.76 times more likely than females to take the stairs, the difference in stair usage after the intervention was not statistically significant anymore. Individual students and staff members were 1.44 times more likely to take the stairs than when grouped with others. This difference in stair usage individually or in a group increased from nearly 8% before the intervention to 17% after the intervention. Although short, the intervention showed to be successful and the results indicated that elevator interventions should be utilized in future contexts at a population level to spread the message that by reducing elevator usage, energy can be saved, and human fitness improved.

Comparing dropout intentions of math students on trainee teacher courses versus bachelor of science courses using intensive longitudinal data

In the past, high dropout rates of university math students have been recurrently observed, causing psychological and economic costs for individuals and society. In this article, we draw on prospective, intensive longitudinal data (ILD) collected at a large German university to examine the effects of stable inter-individual differences (e.g., general math competencies) and intra-individual changes (e.g., motivational states) on the intention to drop out of math studies, an important precursor for actual dropout. Given the ongoing discussion on whether student teachers differ from other types of students in their characteristics (e.g., with respect to cognitive abilities), we were particularly interested in differences in dropout intentions between first-year math B.Sc. and B.Ed. students, who attend the same introductory lectures. Using recent residual dynamic structural equation modeling techniques (RDSEM) we find that dropout intentions of math students in their first semester depend on both baseline characteristics and motivational changeable states which occur during the course. Furthermore, it is shown that B.Sc. and B.Ed. students differ regarding their intra-individual effects and have different trajectories of dropout intentions over time such that they cannot be assumed to be a homogeneous group. The results suggest that the two groups require differential treatment concerning the prevention of early dropouts.

Whole-pelvic irradiation with boost to involved nodes and prostate in node-positive prostate cancer-long-term data from the prospective PLATIN-2trial.

Node-positive prostate cancer is apotentially curable disease. Definitive radiotherapy to the prostate and lymphatic drainage is an effective treatment option but prospective long-term outcome data are scarce. Thus, the current study aimed to evaluate the toxicity and efficacy of definitive radiation therapy for men with prostate cancer and nodal metastases using modern irradiation techniques. A total of 40treatment-naïve men with node-positive prostate cancer were allocated to the trial. All patients received definitive radiation therapy at two German university hospitals between 2009 and 2018. Radiation was delivered as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) with 51 Gy to the lymphatic drainage with simultaneous integrated boost (SIB) up to 61.2 Gy to involved nodes and 76.5 Gy to the prostate in 34fractions. Feasibility and safety, overall and progression-free survival, toxicity, and quality of life measurements were analyzed. During amedian follow-up of 79months, median overall survival was 107 months and progression-free survival was 78months. Based on imaging follow-up, no infield relapse was reported during the first 24months of follow-up. There were 3(8%) potentially treatment-related grade3 toxicities. Common iliac node involvement was associated with ahigher risk of progression (HR 15.8; 95% CI 2.1-119.8; p = 0.007). Definitive radiation to the lymphatic drainage with SIB to the involved nodes and prostate is asafe and effective treatment approach for patients with treatment-naïve, node-positive prostate cancer with excellent infield tumor control rates and tolerable toxicity. Location rather than number of involved nodes is amajor risk factor for progression.

Higher education students differ in their technology use

Digital media are widely used among Higher Education (HE) students; however, it is not clear yet how students from different disciplines apply learning technology. When differences in technology use were found among disciplines, they were identified broadly, for example, between soft and hard sciences, that is, social sciences/humanities vs. natural sciences. Beyond this, disciplines may also differ according to their traditions, norms and values that form their discipline-specific cultures. Thus, based on the theoretical perspectives of social cognitive theory and organisational culture, this present study aimed to examine students’ technology use in different HE disciplines. In a multilevel analysis, data from four German universities were analyzed, including more than 1,200 students from 105 disciplines. The findings suggest that students in different disciplines vary substantially in their average use of study-related technology. Furthermore, on the individual level, study-related technology use depends on individual factors, e.g., perceived usefulness. This present study's results contribute to further extending our knowledge about student technology use in HE. Above all, the conceptual and methodical models can serve as a theoretical and empirical basis for future studies. To analyze disciplinary differences, the study shows that a rough classification, for example hard versus soft disciplines, is not sufficient. Instead, the different disciplines need to be distinguished.

Decision-making in the capital budgeting context: effects of type of decision aid and increases in information load

This paper sheds light on the question of whether a rules-based or general principles-based decision aid is preferable in the context of increased information load by experimentally investigating how different types of decision aids interact with increases in information load in a structured capital budgeting decision-making task. The experiment employed a 2 × 2 between-subjects design and was run in a course on management control systems with 136 master’s degree students at a German university. Subjects were tasked with reviewing investment proposals that contained differing amounts of information (low vs. high information load, i.e., irrelevant information cues in addition to those relevant for the decision). The second manipulation referred to the type of decision aid—either a detailed, rules-based capital budgeting guideline with clear cut-off rates, or the advice to employ generally accepted criteria for investment decision-making. The dependent variables investigated were perceived task complexity, decision accuracy, and decision confidence. Increases in information load and provision of a decision aid based on general principles led to an increase in perceived task complexity. There was only limited evidence for experimental conditions affecting decision accuracy, but the group of subjects relying on the rules-based capital budgeting guideline reported significantly higher decision confidence.