If a student starts studying immediately after graduating from high school, an academic degree can be achieved at the age of 20. The G7, i.e. the Abitur after the 12th grade and the Bologna reform with bachelor’s and master’s degrees, make this possible. It’s that quick and direct. Daniel Bahner completed his bachelor’s degree at the age of 33. Admittedly the best of his year, but much later than most of the other engineers. At his middle school age, the youngster has no idea what will come after his apprenticeship.
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Bahner comes from Winnenden, near Stuttgart. At 17, he began an apprenticeship as a mechatronics engineer at Stihl in Waiblingen, just ten kilometers from his hometown. He then works in endurance testing and, in addition to his work, goes to technical school for four years. He rises in the job, does more valuable work. After three years, he enrolled in a mechatronics course at the Graduate Campus, a further education facility at Aalen University. Also part-time. “It became clear to me that only a degree would really get me ahead professionally and technically,” says Bahner. He does belong to a minority. But it is increasing rapidly.
Since 2011, the number of students without an Abitur in Germany has more than doubled from around 32,000 to 70,000. This is a new high, equivalent to 2.4 percent of the entire student body. There are also new highs for first-year students and graduates. This is shown by the current evaluation by the Center for Higher Education Development CHE based on the most recent available data from 2021. “A central trigger for the strong increase in courses with professional access was the decision of the Ministerial Conference in 2009 to introduce this option nationwide in Germany,” says Sigrun Nickel, Head of University Research at the CHE. Previously, this was only possible in some federal states.
Access conditions are a matter for the state
Students without a school-leaving examination have obtained their entrance qualification to the university professionally. Either through a skilled worker examination, further training to become a master craftsman or technician. In business administration courses, a business administration or specialist is the prerequisite. Because education is a matter for the federal states, the requirements and study options vary. In one country they lead to a subject-related, in another to a general higher education entrance qualification.
The ten-year comparison also shows that there is an immense boom at private universities in particular: almost half of all first-semester students without a high school diploma or university entrance qualification enroll there. “Studying at these universities is very flexible, and that suits this group of people very well,” says Nickel. In the ranking of the most popular subjects, economics is ahead of engineering, which includes computer science, and healthcare.
On average, at the age of 33, those with professional qualifications are significantly older than traditional students and therefore also in a different life situation than younger people. “Their standard of living is higher, they have financial obligations and therefore often don’t want to quit their jobs,” says Nickel. That is why they often study parallel to their work and pay for their studies themselves.
Bahner was already thinking about getting the entrance qualification for a technical college in order to be able to study. He was even at an information evening at a school in Stuttgart. “But then there were drastic changes in my family and from then on I had to finance my livelihood on my own.” The financial risk of going to school first and then studying was too great for him. That’s why he continued to work and became a technician at the same time: “I wasn’t aware when I started at the technical school that I would study afterwards.”
“Hard time”
Daniel Bahner
On Friday afternoons and all day on Saturdays, he sat in the presence lectures at the university. He studied on Sundays and in the evenings. “It was a tough time,” says Bahner. It also cost a lot of money: 21,800 euros plus travel expenses. As an engineer, Bahner remained loyal to Stihl and the endurance test and now works there as a test engineer. He tests hedge trimmers, special harvesters, for example for shaking olives, and cleaning equipment in endurance tests.
On his first day as an engineer, he already had 16 years of professional experience in mechatronics at Stihl. “I was able to start without any training and solve my tasks from the practical side.” If a manager thinks that a new order should be approached in this way or something similar, Bahner definitely has his own ideas. “I’ll say that too.” Engineers with no hands-on experience try to do it as is, and may later come to the conclusion that it doesn’t work that way. This is not the norm, but it happens regularly, reports the engineer.
90% Bachelor
When comparing the types of higher education institutions, universities of applied sciences and universities of applied sciences are the most popular among students with professional qualifications; around three quarters of all first-year students study there. Around a quarter of all freshmen in this group are enrolled at the IU International University alone. It offers face-to-face courses, dual study programs and distance learning courses.
Together with the Fernuniversität Hagen and the Diploma Hochschule, the IU is one of the universities with the most new students with professional admission requirements. Around nine out of ten of the professionally qualified students complete a bachelor’s degree. As the CHE evaluation shows, this group is still rather rare in the master’s program.
After completing his bachelor’s degree two years ago, Bahner needed time to regenerate, for his new job and his private life. “I’m getting married this year.” After that, he can well imagine adding a master’s degree. If so, then also part-time. Bahner is very familiar with this.
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