Industry calls for higher education reforms

“Germany’s two leading industrial federations have jointly issued four demands to promote ‘modern and competitive higher education institutions’. They stress that there has to be a steady increase in the number of academics over the coming years for the country to maintain a successful position in the world economy. The demands, formulated at the recent Joint Presidium of the BDA (Confederation of German Employers) and the BDI (Federation of German Industry), focus on the key issues of institutional autonomy, raising graduate numbers, increasing opportunities to enter higher education without a corresponding formal certificate of secondary education being required, boosting postgraduate further education programmes at institutions, and orienting higher education funding towards investment …” (more)

[Michael Gardner, University World News, 1 March]