Foreign students in Germany

April 15, 2015

The federal government wants to increase the number of foreign students in Germany to 350,000 by 2020. Achim Meyer auf der Heyde, General Secretary of the German Student Union (DSW), explains in an interview what problems are associated with or are increasing with this internationalization strategy and how the 58 student unions nationwide support foreign students.

Mr. Meyer auf der Heyde, how does the DSW generally feel about making German lecture halls even more international?

We see this as positive. However, you have to look at this number in the overall context: If Germany wants to welcome 350,000 foreign students by 2020, this simply means that we are keeping our share of the global mobility of international students. This is continuously increasing and is forecast to reach six to eight million by 2020. Japan, Malaysia and France are just a few examples of countries that also want to increase the number of so-called foreign students. If you want to further strengthen Germany as a place to study in global competition, you may need many more international students. Desire and idea are one thing.

However, are all the framework conditions and resources available for this?

The Minister of Education and the federal and state ministers have formulated noble goals without adequately equipping the universities and student unions. In addition to increasing the number of students, the study success rate should also be brought into line with the German level. This is currently 72 percent, and in the case of international students between 50 and 55 percent. However, this is only possible if appropriate support and service offerings exist. How to organize this and whether we want to make more resources available to the universities and student unions – we have not yet had an answer. I think the calculation was made here without the innkeeper.

Just consider the fact that German students already have great difficulty finding accommodation.

Yes, we see significant problems, especially in the housing area, because international students prefer to live in dormitories, but we have significant supply bottlenecks in many university towns. That's why we say: If you want to achieve this number, this increase, you would need an additional 20,000 dormitory places for international students alone in the next few years. If you add the increasing number of German students, even 45,000. The states provide a little funding - but that's not enough. The federal government would have to get involved, like it did back in the 70s and 90s, when there were really broad federal-state funding programs. It's all about affordable housing for students - we need subsidies for that. Other countries show that it can be done. Take France, for example, where a very ambitious housing construction program is currently creating around 50,000 dormitory places. Of course, the question arises: What about us?

On average, around every second foreign student drops out of their studies in Germany. What other problems contribute to this?

On the one hand, there would certainly be student financing, i.e. e.g. B. the conflict between employment and studies, as well as study orientation. You would have to, for example, B. increasingly look at the educational background in their home country. Often there are systems that are not very open to discussion, but rather that teach from the front. We would have to focus more on this and take into account the learning requirements of international students. Or look at the situation of a Chinese student: He is leaving an environment characterized by strong paternalism and regulation. In Germany he comes to the Mecca of autonomy. Then, of course, it is clear that he will not immediately be able to cope with this autonomy, which can lead to difficulties in everyday life, in the dormitory and at the university.

Do aspects such as a lack of language skills and integration also play a role?

International students can use everyday and colloquial German quite well, but often have considerable problems with technical language. Perhaps it would really make sense to think about a preliminary measure that specifically prepares students for the subject of study. And yes: students who are less well integrated naturally have the problem that, for example, they B. collaborate less in work groups. This does not necessarily have a positive impact on your study progress.