How higher education institutions (HEIs) can make use of diversity in the student community

„Students have chosen their study programme consciously, can concentrate on their studies fully, all share the same standard of knowledge and all have very similar learning speeds – such an inaccurate picture of “the average student” still forms the basis for many study programmes. But the idea of “a normal student” no longer exists, as a result of an increasingly diverse student body, and there is an increasing discrepancy between offers and demand. CHE Consult is staging a conference from 21-22 October under the provocative banner of ”Survival of the fittest?”. The meeting will illuminate changes at higher education institutions (HEIs) brought about by a developing student community. In three sessions, national and international lecturers will be discussing international experiences and presenting innovative projects at German HEIs:

Integration at HEIs: diversity and quality of supervision
Which supervisory offers and structures promote integration at HEIs and thus contribute to increased participation in education and greater academic success among students who do not conform to the image of the “normal student”?

Enrichment rather than deficit: diversity in teaching
How can HEIs achieve new target groups and how can individuals introduce their particular experience, knowledge and abilities into their studies? How can teaching benefit from students of different backgrounds rather than seeing them as an obstacle in the study programme?

Diversity and structure: changes at the HEI
Which changes are necessary at the HEI so that the structures meet the (new) requirements? How can a diversity strategy be translated into structures?

The more students differ in their requirements, life situations, study motivations and professional goals, the more HEIs are required to support and promote both students and prospective students.

Many international universities are already one step ahead: using examples from the Netherlands, Great Britain, Ireland and the US, the conference will show how students can be individually tutored and advised in spite of their differing requirements, and how newly developed, integrative teaching concepts can enrich HEIs.

These examples inside and outside of Germany will also show that the focus is not on inventing new measures or ”diversity instruments“; but it is now far more a case of concrete starting points that show how HEIs can better fulfil their responsibilities towards young people:

• HEIs are planning new Bachelor programmes, mainly as full-time programmes with a heavy workload, although one-fifth of students are actually doing part-time programmes.

• The standard duration of the new study programmes is being prescribed uncompromisingly and inflexibly, although the ”standard period of study“ so far had only little to do with the actual time students needed to complete their degrees. Different speeds of learning and interest in the study programme therefore become a disadvantage.

• The time planned for preparatory courses ahead of the study programme is often too short, although these courses are considered to be of major importance as far as the Bologna philosophy is concerned. They can particularly help to level out the standard of knowledge and to make students familiar with academic requirements at HEIs.

• The support and advisory offers of HEIs often does not extend beyond the mainly specialist advice given to students in their departments, or it is wholly separate from the study programme and offered in student advice centres and psychological counselling services. In addition, there is often a total lack of financial counselling at HEIs and it is mostly out-sourced to the social counselling services offered by the Studentenwerk (students union). But it is often as a result of financial problems and issues about direction and decisions that students discontinue their studies – and students are affected by this to different degrees depending on their origins and life situations.

Even the initiatives for student parents and students without the school leaving certificate (Abitur) show that German HEIs are increasingly recognising their responsibility to support students as best they can.

The conference is being held as part of the “Diversity as chance“ project, which, in co-operation with eight project HEIs from all over Germany, is looking for answers to the question of how diversity in the student community can be seen and used as productively by HEIs.

The project is being supported by the Bertelsmann Foundation as part of the “Integration and Education” programme.