Implementation of International Master’s Programmes in Engineering Education in Germany

Abstract

[EN] This paper introduces the framework conditions of the internationalization process of the higher education system in Germany and gives an overview of the implementation of international Master’s programmes in engineering education and the characteristics of student migrants in this field of studies. Developments on the macro-level clearly indicate political interest to attract more international students for German universities and the technical disciplines in Germany are already very successful in this endeavour. With a special focus on higher education reforms in engineering, this paper is based on an investigation directed at the meso-level, the motivations and strategies at the level of university and faculties for establishing such international study programmes. The results of a qualitative study will be presented that was conducted at the engineering faculties of the Ruhr-Universität in Bochum between December 2014 and August 2015. With the overall aim of investigating in how far the decisions made on university and faculty levels are related to the general political endeavors to attract international talent, the different stakeholders’ interests and implementation strategies such as language policy were considered