Germany's education strategy
Last week, I met Siegfried a professor from Germany who wanted to collaborate with my program at CMU. He told me that would like to put several students into my program as part of a study abroad. He said: “The German government is planning to send half of Germany's university students abroad as part of their studies so they can broaden their view about the world, how things are being taught in other countries, and how business is being conducted etc. in which it will give Germany a competitive advantage in this globalized world.”
I was surprised: “Half of university students will be sent to study abroad, that means several millions? It seems like a massive movement of students to go oversea? Why would your government want to do that? That could mean a “Brain drain” for your country?
He said: “We are living in a globalized world but our education system is still localized. We need to develop a new type of graduates who understand the world, who know other languages, who have insight into other cultures. Currently about a quarter of our students are studying in another countries, mostly in Europe but we need to expand to the U.S. Africa, and Asia. Our government ministers are strongly support this policy to increase this to 50 percent within the next six years. The world is changing fast and we must change with it.”
I was curious: “It seems that your government has a very ambitious plan but why so many? Haft of university students is a huge number?”
He said: “We have to look into the future, investing several hundred millions of euros for a study-abroad program seems too much but it was a key part of our industrial strategy, which requires highly skilled graduates to be able to operate across the world. The German economy is dependent on exports, which once made up 30 percent of our economy, but now make up 50 percent. With globalization the world market is wide open with so many new opportunities. That is why we want to qualify our workforce and make sure that our graduates are internationally qualified. It is critical to have qualified managers and workers who can operate worldwide. Today the world is changing, the economy is no longer national but international, business is operating 24 hours across all borders, so the education system must change and students must receive different style of learning. We cannot change fast enough so we send students to universities across the world so they can learn new style of learning, new types of teaching, new materials, new approaches, new theories, new methods etc. Today about 200,000 German students received funding to study abroad but we will increase the number to million in the next few years.”
I asked: “Sending million students to study oversea is not easy as it requires a lot of coordination, management and funding.”
He said: “Germany is putting a lot of money into this. This massive movement of German students abroad is funded. Of course the goal is ambitious and we are not sure if we can do it within a short time but also want to increase the number of foreign students studying in our country from 50,000 to 350,000 too. We want to have more exchanges as things are changing fast.”
I told him: “That is interesting, you send a lot of students to study oversea and also increase the number of foreign students in your country. What do you want to gain from this new policy?”
He said: “Of course, the goal is to gain long-term friends of Germany throughout the world. About half of foreign graduates often remained in Germany after they completed their education, which also help to fill a shortage in skilled labor. As they stay and work, they pay taxes and contribute to our economy. As our industry expands all over the world, we need workers everywhere but having our graduates there would be a great benefit. We have to think about the future, we have to have a strategy for the future. In this globalized world, if you do not change, you will be left behind and if you cannot catch up, you will be never survived. This is why we are doing it. We are investing for the future of our country."
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
