German universities can expect international first-year students to offset stagnating or even further declining numbers of first semester German students by 2026, new analysis has suggested.
Support for school-leavers gains importance due to COVID
School-leavers can benefit from a range of measures by universities to bridge knowledge gaps. Link programmes and preparatory courses are assuming particular significance given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on schooling, according to a new survey by Germany’s Centre for Higher Education (CHE).
Universities have already been running preliminary programmes for some years, although they are reckoning with record numbers of first-year students attending them in the next winter semester, when the 2021 cohort of higher secondary school-leavers enrol, many of whom have been particularly affected by restrictions necessitated at schools by the pandemic. According to the CHE ‘CHECK’ (sic) report on access to higher education, 67% of all universities provide bridging and preparatory courses.